Nobel Peace Prize

"It is perhaps not coincidental that Nobel Committee Chair Kaci Kullmann Five is a former chairwoman of the Norwegian Conservative Party, a business consultant, a managing director of one of Norway’s largest holding companies, and a member of the board of directors of several other large privately held corporations as well as Norway’s largest petroleum company, Statoil. A committee led by someone with these credentials might not recognize, or might not wish to acknowledge, that it was the preeminent role of the UGTT along with strikes, occupations of public space, and street demonstrations that broke Tunisia’s political logjam, not simply “peaceful dialogue . . . to find consensus. . . .”

The Nobel Committee correctly noted that Tunisia still faces political, economic, and security challenges. The security issue has received the most attention after the major terrorist attacks in March and June of this year. The government subsequently proclaimed a state of emergency and adopted a new anti-terrorist law. Eight international NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Carter Center, and the International Federation of Human Rights criticized the new law as “imperil[ing] human rights and lack[ing] the necessary safeguards against abuse.” Many consider the new law uncomfortably similar to the 2003 law enacted by the Ben Ali regime, which was largely unenforced from his departure in January 2011 until May 2015."