On Tuesday, March 5, 2013, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University and the Maghreb Center hosted a conference titled “Constitutionalism and Human Rights in Tunisia: the Islamist-led Democratic Transition Post-Arab Spring.” The opening remarks for the conference were conducted by Dr. Nejib Ayachi, President of the Maghreb Center, Dr. Mohammed Mattar, Executive Director of The Protection Project at SAIS, and Issam Saliba, Secretary of the International Council for Middle Eastern Studies. The first session of the conference focused on the post-revolution political and constitutional transitions. The session was moderated by Dr. William Zartman, Professor Emeritus at SAIS, and featured Alexis Arief, analyst for the Congressional Research Service, Dr. Alaya Allani, Projessor of Hisotry at Manouba University in Tunis, Dr. Ghazi Gherairi, Law Professor at University of Tunis, and Dr. Ahmed El Hamri, a development economist and consultant at the World Bank. The second session focused on the future of women’s rights, minority rights, and freedom of expression. It was moderated by Dr. Ayachi and featured Eric Goldstein of Human Rights Watch, Naziha Rejiba, journalist and human rights activist, and Dr. Nancy Okail, Program Director at Freedom House. Both panels were followed immediately by question and answer sessions. Dr. Ayachi closed the conference.
For full event notes, continue reading or click here for the PDF.
Dr. Nejib Ayachi, President of the Maghreb Center, began the opening remarks panel by reminding the attendees of the “tense political atmosphere” that has developed in Tunisia in addition to the security situation which “has become unpredictable to say the least.” He noted that Chokri Belaid‘s assassination was the first political assassination in Tunisia since political independence in 1956.
Dr. Mohammed Mattar, Executive Director of The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University, welcomed attendees by raising three important issues he thought would be addressed throughout the day’s discussion. First, Mattar identified a need to examine the relation between international law and the Tunisian constitution, which is still being drafted. Second, he discussed how the new constitution will protect women’s rights. He noted the draft constitution had articles that obliged the state to protect women’s rights and gave specific protections against violence towards women, and he said he hoped these articles would stay in the final version. Third, Mattar highlighted the issue of Islam in forming Tunisia’s new constitution. “I am against separation between religion and state,” he said, but added “the question is how you interpret religion.”
Issam Saliba, Secretary of the International Council for Middle Eastern Studies, stated that his comments were strictly his opinion and did not represent any organization he was affiliated with. Saliba believes that there are two important hurdles to overcome in Tunisian: the economy and the relationship between Islam and the state. Specifically, he said, “the question is not whether the government should be Islamic; the question is, ‘what is an Islamic state?’”
Following the opening remarks, the panel on the post-revolution political and constitutional transitions began. Alexis Arieff, analyst for the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, spoke first. She reminded attendees that after the initial revolution, Tunisia faced many internal challenges and the transition process “seemed to be slow and unwieldy.” Elections in 2011 re-energized this process, but every time Tunisians wait until the last minute to come together it deepens “the level of mistrust between segments of the Tunisian political elite.”
Dr. Ahmed El Hamri, a development economist at The World Bank, discussed the economic conditions that led to the Tunisian revolution and the continuing problems that Tunisia still faces. He noted that economists considered Tunisia a regional showcase in the 90′s and 00′s as there was strong growth that resulted from Tunisia’s focus on exports. “Despite this growth, the main motivation for the uprising was that many Tunisians were excluded from the benefits.” He blamed the fundamental economic model used in Tunisia, which he said created a mismatch between created jobs and the skills of the labor force. Education increased significantly but a growth of skilled jobs did not, creating a large population of unemployed but educated Tunisians. He also noted a downward trend of private investment in the past two decades, making Tunisia one of only three countries in the MENA region that witnessed a decline in investment as a percentage of GDP.
El Hamri noted that Tunisia still faces “significant socioeconomic development challenges.” His forecast was bleak, saying that while the new government put in place an action plan, the economy is likely to remain in a recessive mode. He pointed to Tunisia’s increasing external debt as a major problem and predicted a continuing decline in the export of goods and tourism revenue in addition to an increase in public debt, inflation, and the chronic unemployment rate. El Hamri then listed suggestions he had for Tunisia. First, he stressed the need to limit external debt. This could be done through international debt forgiveness, the opening of special export channels, and by returning money to the Tunisian people through the World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR). He also recommended that the new constitution include language that addresses corruption in order to improve business and good governance practices. Furthermore, he recommended getting rid of gender disparities in the work environment, reducing geographic disparities as most economic development is at the coasts, creating a social inclusion program targeted at the poor, and revising the investment code. He concluded by saying “Tunisia needs a lot of help from the international community,” specifically with regard to their international debt. He added, “I stress the implementation of the StAR initiative that should give Tunisia the assurance that the international community is with them.”
In a question and answer session that followed the panel, El Hamri said “Yes, we got it wrong,” in response to a question about whether the World Bank was inaccurate in its positive assessment of Tunisia pre-Arab Spring. Commenting on the economic situation of Tunisia’s past, moderator Dr. William Zartman said, “Tunisia succeeded very much in the education sector but the economic model was not good… every time a business succeeded it was taken over by Ben Ali.”
Eric Goldstein of Human Rights Watch opened the second session by discussing human rights, democratic transition, and the new constitution. He said that Tunisia is “in a transitional stage politically” and the situation there is “volatile.” He said the lack of a general election since the revolution raises some issues for human rights because the current government has a limited mandate and does not have the same legitimacy of an elected government. Discussing the new draft of the constitution, Goldstein said that there are improvements between the first and second drafts. However, he expressed concern over Article 15, which makes Tunisia’s respect for international conventions contingent on whether those conventions contravene Tunisia’s constitution, and over “inadequate” provisions for an independent judiciary. He also said that ensuring human rights is only partly about getting the constitution right. Goldstein commented on the state of Tunisia’s security sector, saying it is in transition. Specifically, he said that the police are not always doing their job, which produces a climate of insecurity and sometimes increases the boldness of militant groups. He also said changing the way the police manage protests is an important part of security sector reform. Tunisian police had never dealt with the protests on this scale before the revolution because demonstrations were illegal under Ben Ali. He also mentioned concerns over the presence of armed individuals who work with the police but move among the population in plain clothes; Goldstein argued that this limits police accountability. Goldstein stated that the draft law on transitional justice, which would establish a truth commission, is a good law. He said a major question facing Tunisia is how to build a judiciary where judges feel independent and thus begin to act independently. He stated that there has been progress in freedom for NGOs and general transparency in Tunisia. He said foreign human rights organizations are allowed to maintain a presence in Tunisia and activists are not denied entry to the country. He said there is a “spirit of cooperativeness” across the government. Goldstein stated that Tunisia is now “unquestionably better than it was under Ben Ali” but that its transition will continue to be “messy” for years to come.
Naziha Rejiba, a Tunisian journalist and human rights activist, spoke about freedom of the press. She began by praising the role of the press in Tunisia’s history and culture. She called the current situation in Tunisia a moment of “creative chaos.” She said the chaotic atmosphere that surrounded the election affected the outcome, pointing to a recent controversial film portraying the prophet Mohamed as a trigger that temporarily shifted support to Ennahda before the election. Rejiba described several means used to limit the media, including death threats to journalists and physical punishment. She also said the Islamist government blames its negative image among the public on what they call anti-government media. Rejiba stated that democracy and human rights advocates will not allow Ennahda or any other group to kill their dream of democracy. She also argued that Tunisia must have free journalists before it can have free speech.
Nancy Okail of Freedom House spoke on Islamists and women’s rights. She said that although the status of Tunisian women is one of the most progressive in the region, there are “conflicting signals” on their current situation. Most of the progress on women’s place in Tunisian society is associated with the Ben Ali regime, which is now used as an excuse for the ruling Islamists to move in the opposite direction. She said women’s rights must be viewed in relation to the power dynamics in the country and in terms of who and what is driving change. She said incidents of repression of women are often also stories of the police state and a lack of rights for all Tunisians. Based on this, she argued that women’s issues are not isolated. She said repression is felt by all marginalized populations, including women, youth, and religious minorities. Okail also discussed the role of drivers of change, saying that not all drivers of change are positive and that there are often triggers brought about by an accumulation of effort. She said rules and laws are not the only tools to create change and basic imbalances in society must be addressed in order for change to have an effect. She said this is particularly true in situations where structural barriers remain in spite of the passage of a law that nominally allows an activity, for example allowing women to participate in political life but scheduling all political meetings after women’s curfew to prevent their attendance. Okail listed education and media tools to change culture. She closed by saying that change cannot be pursued in isolation from human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press.
Among the questions during the question and answer session was an inquiry about specific desired reforms for the judiciary in the new constitution. Panelists indicated that Ennahda was reluctant to reform the judiciary and security sector because it is able to use them for its own benefit. Goldstein spoke specifically about the need to reform the way police and judges handle criminal cases, saying that the current practice of relying solely on a single confession or witness statement for conviction needed to give way to a new practice of thorough police work and judiciary judgments that fully investigate crimes. A question on the role of media and social media in the transition was raised. Rejiba stated that Facebook has been critical in mobilizing people for demonstrations, for information sharing between Tunisian and Egyptian youth on demonstration tactics, and for publishing facts about political life in Tunisia. She also noted the potential negative impact of social media, citing slander, spreading rumors, and scaring citizens as common negative uses of media. She also mentioned efforts by some to develop a framework for rationalizing and managing Facebook. Okail discussed the role of social media in equalizing voices in the public sphere, saying that the social space had traditionally allocated power according to position but social media allowed citizens to interact freely with no power hierarchy to obstruct discussion. Okail also noted that the impact of social media is limited by poor education and low literacy rates in Tunisia. Goldstein commented that “social media is not the exclusive domain of the good guys.” The final question addressed the issue of whether change in Tunisia is simply a phase or will be genuine and lasting. Rejabi stated that Tunisia will come through the era of Islamists and return to normal and that ultimately the issue of Islamism will need to be resolved to achieve peaceful coexistence among the people of Tunisia. The moderator closed by saying that there will be setbacks but Tunisia is moving in the right direction.