Tunisia which country

It composed of more than 2 million members and more than representations throughout the country and largely overlapped with all important state institutions. Moreover, Tunisia is the only country in the Arab world where polygamy is forbidden by law. The Tunisian legal system is based on the French civil code and on Islamic law; the judiciary is appointed by the Ministry of Justice.

Enacted less than five months after Tunisia gained its independence, the code was meant to end gender inequality and update family law, to enable greater social and economic progress and make Tunisia a fully modern society. Independent human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Protection International, have documented that basic human and political rights were not respected. The regime obstructed in any way possible the work of local human rights organizations.

In the Economist's Democracy Index Tunisia was classified as an authoritarian regime ranking out of countries studied. In , in terms of freedom of the press, Tunisia was ranked out of Since Tunisia has formally reformed its political system several times, abolishing life presidency and opening up the parliament to opposition parties.

The President's official speeches are full of references to the importance of democracy and freedom of speech. According to Amnesty International, "the Tunisian government is misleading the world as it conveys a positive image of the human rights situation in the country while abuses by its security forces continue unabated and are committed with impunity".

Freedom of the press is officially guaranteed by the government, although independent press outlets remained restricted until , as did a substantial amount of web content. According to the Open Net Initiative, journalists were often obstructed from reporting on controversial events. In practice, no public criticism of the regime was tolerated and all direct protest was severely suppressed and did not get reported in the local media. This was the case with the public demonstrations against nepotism.

In January U. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton mentioned Tunisia and China as the two countries with the greatest internet censorship. The state-owned 'Publinet' internet network had more than 1. Hundreds of thousands of young men avoided compulsory conscription and lived with the constant fear of arrest, although it appears that the police went after them only in certain times of the year the 'raffle' and often let them go if a sufficient bribe was paid. Since the revolution of , religious violence has increased in Tunisia, primarily consisting of Muslim attacks on Christians and members of other non-Muslim groups.

Tunisian journalists and human rights activists were harassed and faced surveillance and imprisonment under harsh conditions. Others were dismissed from their jobs or denied their right to communicate and move freely. The authorities had also prevented the emergence of an independent judiciary, further compounding the problem. Islamist groups have also violently repressed artistic expression that is viewed to be hostile to Islam. Accusations were made against the old regime, accusing it of being a kleptocracy with corrupt members of the Trabelsi family, most notably in the cases of Imed Trabelsi and Belhassen Trabelsi, controlling much of the business sector in the country.

The report mentioned that the trips are not on the official travel itinerary. The former first lady was described then as a shopaholic. Tunisia refused a French request for the extradition of two of the President's nephews, from Leila's side, who were accused by the French State prosecutor of having stolen two mega-yachts from a French marina.

During the last few years of the old regime, rumors circulated that Ben Ali's son-in-law Sakher al-Materi the husband of Zine and Leila's daughter Nessrine was being primed to eventually take over the country. On October 25, , national elections to elect the president and parliament were held in Tunisia in what was described by a Human Rights Watch report as "an atmosphere of repression". Ben Ali faced three candidates, two of whom said they actually supported the incumbent. His opponent, Mohamed Bouchiha, received 5.

The candidate who was most critical of the regime, Ahmed Ibrahim, of the Ettajdid party, received only 1. The president's party, the RCD, also got the majority of votes for the parliamentary election, The Movement of Socialist Democrats party received 4. The election received criticism in foreign media.

Human Rights Watch has reported that parties and candidates were denied exposure equal to the sitting president, and that the Ettajdid party's weekly publication, Ettarik al-Jadid , was seized by authorities. Two journalists, one of them a leading critic of the president, were in jail later in the year.

Journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who had published two articles in French newspapers that were critical of the regime, has been incarcerated since October 29, until his release on April 27, The Court of Appeal upheld a sentence of nine years on 3 January in a trial that "confirmed the complete absence of independence of the Tunisian legal system" the defendant's French lawyer William Bourdon said. The Tunisian revolution was an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations that took place in Tunisia.

The events began when Mohamed Bouazizi, a year old Tunisian street vendor, set himself afire on 17 December , in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the humiliation that was inflicted on him by a municipal official. This act became the catalyst for mass demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. Anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death on 4 January , ultimately leading longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January , after 23 years in power.

International Tunisian organizations, such as the Tunisian Community Center in the US, supported the protesters' aims toward democracy as well, in addition to TCC's efforts to freeze Ben Ali's assets abroad. The demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, a lack of freedom of speech and other political freedoms and poor living conditions.

The protests constituted the most dramatic wave of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades and resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces against demonstrators. Labour unions were said to be an integral part of the protests. The protests inspired similar actions throughout the Arab world; sparking the Egyptian revolution in which Egypt's longtime president Hosni Mubarak was ousted, Libya — where a civil war broke out, the Yemeni Revolution, in which longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to resign and further protests in Algeria, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, and Syria, — as well as elsewhere in the wider North Africa and Middle East.

In response to the demonstrations, Ben Ali declared a state of emergency in the country, dissolved the government on January 14, , and promised new legislative elections within six months. But on that same day Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi went on state television to say he was assuming power in Tunisia.

Unconfirmed news reports, citing unidentified government sources in Tunisia, said that the President had left the country. Ghannouchi based his speech on Article 56 of the Tunisian constitution. However, the head of Tunisia's Constitutional Court, Fethi Abdennadher, confirmed that Ghannouchi violated the constitution, as Article 56 was not applicable to the circumstances and required a President.

Article 57 of the constitution stated that the President of the Parliament should take the executive power and organize an election in 45 to 60 days. Consequently, Fouad Mebazaa became acting President following the Constitutional Court's interpretation of the situation and the Constitution.

Protests continued in Tunisia to call for banning of the ruling party and the eviction of all its members from the transitional government formed by Mohammed Ghannouchi.

Eventually the new government gave in to the demands and a new prime minister Beji Caid-Essebsi was appointed by the acting president on Thursday March 3, Two of the first actions made after the appointment of the new government were the decision of the Tunis court to ban the ex-ruling party RCD and to confiscate all its resources, and a decree by the minister of the interior banning the "political police" including what has been known as the state security special forces which were used to intimidate and persecute political activists.

On 3 March , the president announced that elections to a Constituent Assembly would be held on 23 October The constituent assembly elections took place as scheduled with international and internal observers declaring it free and fair. The Ennahda Movement, formerly banned under the Ben Ali regime, won a plurality of 90 seats out of a total of On 12 December , former dissident and veteran human rights activist Moncef Marzouki was elected as president of Tunisia by a ruling coalition dominated by the moderate Islamist Nahda party, and sworn in on 13 December Marzouki had previously been imprisoned and exiled for years for opposing former President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

At the time of his election, Marzouki was head of the secular center-left Congress for the Republic party. The Islamist Nahda party also "won the largest share of seats in an assembly charged with appointing a transitional government and drafting a new constitution.

The new Constitution of Tunisia guarantees rights for women, and states that the President's religion "shall be Islam. Tunisia has a diverse economy, ranging from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and petroleum products, to tourism.

The agricultural sector stands for The industrial sector is mainly made up of clothing and footwear manufacturing, production of car parts, and electric machinery. Tunisia was in ranked the most competitive economy in Africa and the 40th in the world by the World Economic Forum.

Tunisia has managed to attract many international companies such as Airbus and Hewlett-Packard. The European Union remains Tunisia's first trading partner, currently accounting for Tunisia was the first Mediterranean country to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, in July , although even before the date of entry came into force, Tunisia started dismantling tariffs on bilateral EU trade.

Tunisia finalised the tariffs dismantling for industrial products in and therefore was the first Mediterranean country to enter in a free trade area with EU. Tunisia also attracted large Persian Gulf investments especially from United Arab Emirates the largest include:. In , a total of 13, GWh was produced in the country. The main field is El Bourma. Tunisia has plans for two nuclear power stations, to be operational by Both facilities are projected to produce — MW.

France is set to become an important partner in Tunisia's nuclear power plans, having signed an agreement, along with other partners, to deliver training and technology. The Desertec project is a large-scale energy project aimed at installing solar power panels in northern Africa, with a power line connection between it and southern Europe. Tunisia will be a part of this project, but exactly how it may benefit from this remains to be seen. The governorates are divided into "delegations" or "districts" mutamadiyat , and further subdivided into municipalities shaykhats and sectors imadats.

Tunisia's military spending is 1. The army is responsible for national defence and also internal security. It is bordered by Algeria on the west and Libya on the south east. An abrupt southward turn of the Mediterranean coast in northern Tunisia gives the country two distinctive Mediterranean coasts, west-east in the north, and north-south in the east.

Though it is relatively small in size, Tunisia has great environmental diversity due to its north-south extent. Its east-west extent is limited. Differences in Tunisia, like the rest of the Maghreb, are largely north-south environmental differences defined by sharply decreasing rainfall southward from any point. The Dorsal, the eastern extension of the Atlas Mountains, runs across Tunisia in a northeasterly direction from the Algerian border in the west to the Cape Bon peninsula in the east.

North of the Dorsal is the Tell, a region characterized by low, rolling hills and plains, again an extension of mountains to the west in Algeria. In the Khroumerie, the northwestern corner of the Tunisian Tell, elevations reach 1, metres 3, ft and snow occurs in winter.

The Sahel, a broadening coastal plain along Tunisia's eastern Mediterranean coast, is among the world's premier areas of olive cultivation. Inland from the Sahel, between the Dorsal and a range of hills south of Gafsa, are the Steppes. Much of the southern region is semi-arid and desert. French colonial rule ended in , and Tunisia was led for three decades by Habib Bourguiba, who advanced secular ideas, foremost of which was the emancipation of women.

Tunisia is more prosperous than its neighbours. Agriculture employs a large part of the workforce and tourism is a key sector. Mass protests unseated President Ben Ali in - the first of a series of popular uprisings to sweep the region. The country's transition has been relatively peaceful, but secular Tunisians, especially women, are worried about the growing influence of ultra-conservative Islamists. And there is a mounting challenge posed by Islamist militants who claimed responsibility for attacks in in which 60 people were killed, most of them foreigners.

President: Kais Saied. Retired law professor Kais Saied won a landslide victory over media mogul Nabil Karoui in the October presidential election run-off. Mr Saied, who was 61 when elected, campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, and appealed directly to young voters.

He has faced considerable criticism for his conservative views on homosexuality, women's rights and capital punishment, which was suspended in The previous president, Beji Caid Essebsi, died in office in July, after winning the country's first free presidential election in December At the same time, expenditures decreased by 2. The fall in subsidies and interventions Overall, the budget deficit decreased by After an 8.

Market services are suffering from containment health measures, travel restrictions, and the slow pace of vaccination. Political, social, and economic uncertainty remain high; early economic forecasts could be adjusted downwards. The outlook for reforms being put into place to support economic recovery is challenging: With the population already strained by the unprecedented shock of COVID, any space there had been to improve the fiscal outlook—by reducing both the wage bill and the cost of untargeted subsidies—has been narrowed by heightened levels of social and political tension.

Structural reforms, made to address SOE performance, increase market contestability, and clamp down on corruption are even more necessary now than before, but national political dialogue and buy-in for such reforms have yet to emerge. Following the increase in poverty in , it is expected to begin dropping again from onwards, but at a slow pace and with important risks related to the pace of the economic recovery and the capacity of the authorities to cushion the population from the impact COVID within the context of a tight budget.

The Bank has provided a fast and flexible response to the COVID pandemic by using its operational and policy instruments and by working in close partnership with governments and other development agencies. A new Social Protection Emergency Response Project was also issued in March to address the impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable.

The project is providing cash transfers for about 1 million vulnerable Tunisian households to help them deal with the economic impact of the COVID crisis. Further programming will be defined by the new CPF, which is expected to be finalized in early FY Its intervention will focus on: i a more effective and resilient public sector, designed to improve services to individual citizens and the private sector; ii restoring a business environment conducive to sustainable economic growth and private sector-led job creation; and iii enhancing services to citizens for social, economic, and regional inclusion.

The Tunisia Economic Monitor sheds the light on drivers of the sharper decline in growth than most of its regional peers and suggests a coherent plan for restarting the economy and restoring the credibility of the This report identifies key factors weighing on Syrian refugees contemplating a return home and analyzes how changing conditions in Syria might affect their decisions.