Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet Wins Noble Peace Prize

The 2015 Noble Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in the country in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”

“The Quartet was formed in summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest,” the Noble Committee said. “It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war. It was instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.”

The Quartet includes a labor union, a trade confederation, a human rights organization, and a lawyers group.

The prize bolsters the ideals of the Arab Spring, which indeed started in Tunisia in December 2010, with hope and idealism, and spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa, mostly coming under attack by entrenched political order in the region.

Photo: Noble Peace Prize medal (Getty Images)