Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet

The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, a group credited with making a "decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia."

Made up of four entities working to build democracy after the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, the group focused on building "an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war," the Nobel committee said in a release.

The four organizations are the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League, and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. The Nobel committee said the four groups represent four sectors and values in Tunisian life, including welfare, principles of the rule of law and human rights.

"We are here to give hope to young people in Tunisia, that if we believe in our country, we can succeed," Ouided Bouchamaoui, president of the trade and handicrafts group, told NPR. She also said the quartet has no leader: "It's a collaboration. We did it together, the four of us." 

Houcine Abassi, head of Tunisia's General Labour Union, told BBC that receiving the Nobel Peace Prize was a "tribute to martyrs of a democratic Tunisia."

"This effort by our youth has allowed the country to turn the page on dictatorship," he said.

In a video posted on Facebook and translated by BBC, Tunisia President Beji Caid Essebsi said the award honored Tunisia's decision to follow the "path of consensus."

"Tunisia has no other solution than dialogue despite ideological disagreements," he said.

Both the LA Times and BBC called the award of this year's Nobel to the quartet a "surprise." 

"Figures such as Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been considered far more likely contenders for this year’s honor," the Times said, adding, "But the committee appeared to argue that Tunisia’s model of pursuing inclusive democracy offers a powerful counter-narrative to the collapse into chaos of countries such as Syria and Libya -- or the reversion to authoritarian rule in Egypt in the aftermath of regionwide revolts."


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