{"id":722,"date":"2014-01-15T06:36:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T05:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/?p=722"},"modified":"2017-05-30T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T10:52:24","slug":"new-york-times-tunisian-constitution-praised-for-balance-nears-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times: Tunisian Constitution, Praised for Balance, Nears Passage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The New York Times<\/strong>, By CARLOTTA GALL <\/a>

TUNIS \u2014 Tunisia\u2019s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new Constitution that legislators across the political spectrum, human rights organizations and constitutional experts are hailing as a triumph of consensus politics.<\/p>\n

Two years in the making and now in its third draft, the charter is a carefully worded blend of ideas that has won the support of both Ennahda, the Islamist party that leads the interim government, and the secular opposition. It is being hailed as one of the most liberal constitutions in an Arab nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey finally found some equilibrium,\u201d said Ghazi Gherairi, secretary general of the International Academy of Constitutional Law in Tunis, the capital. \u201cIt is a result of consensus, and this is new in the Arab world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of drafting and approving a new Constitution took a year longer than planned. It was buffeted by two<\/a> assassinations<\/a> and rising terrorism last year, and by political divisions that nearly derailed the government.<\/p>\n

Ennahda ultimately gave up many of its original goals for the Constitution: It says nothing, for instance, about the establishment of an Islamic state or the supremacy of Sharia law. But the party succeeded in injecting an Islamic flavor, with wording stating that Islam is the religion of Tunisia and a preamble that recognizes Tunisians\u2019 Arab-Muslim identity.<\/p>\n

With Western support and strong lobbying by civil society groups, the country\u2019s more liberal parties secured constitutional guarantees that Tunisia will remain a civil state with separation of powers. The Constitution enshrines universal freedoms and rights, and calls for parity for women in elected bodies.<\/p>\n

The first two articles lay out the balance between Islamist and secular views in careful language that is not subject to amendment by future governments. \u201cTunisia is a free, independent and sovereign state, Islam is her religion, Arabic her language and republic her regime,\u201d they say. \u201cTunisia is a state of civil character, based on citizenship, the will of the people and the primacy of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the country remains divided over the role of religion in public life, those divisions were set aside in order to guarantee freedoms and prevent a return to the kind of dictatorial rule Tunisians overthrew<\/a> in 2011, at the start of the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere in the 217-member assembly drafting the charter changed remarkably in the last 12 days, as members put aside the hostilities<\/a> that had suspended the proceedings for five months and worked 14-hour days to debate and vote on the draft, article by article.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a positively crazy, fantastic environment,\u201d said Noomane Fehri, a member of a small secular party, Afek Tounes. \u201cThere is a will to complete it within the time frame, and suddenly things started to work.\u201d The assembly is likely to ratify the full charter with the necessary two-thirds majority when the final vote is taken, he said. The vote may come in the next few days.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gherairi, the constitutional law expert, predicted that the new Constitution would endure because parties across the political spectrum had endorsed it. He contrasted the drafting process in Tunisia, which has involved an elected assembly and consensus, with the process in Egypt, where an Islamist government pushed through a new charter<\/a> over widespread opposition, only to be ousted and replaced by a military-backed government that rewrote it again. The latest draft was put to Egyptian voters in a referendum on Tuesday<\/a> that the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups boycotted.<\/p>\n

The latest Egyptian Constitution, which strips the Islamist language of the previous one, has drawn criticism for strengthening the state institutions that overthrew the elected Muslim Brotherhood government: the military, the police and the judiciary. The new charter gives the armed forces the right to appoint the defense minister for the next two terms.<\/p>\n

It was partly the crisis in Egypt \u2014 including the overthrow last summer<\/a> of the Islamist government of President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt\u2019s first popularly elected leader \u2014 that prompted Ennahda to make important concessions and seek consensus on the new Tunisian Constitution. The assassination<\/a> on July 25 of a left-wing politician, Mohamed Brahmi, in Tunis \u2014 the second political assassination in the country in six months \u2014 drew a sharp public reaction, weakening the Islamists.<\/p>\n

Though the assembly as a whole suspended work on the Constitution for five months, a commission of assembly members set up by Ennahda continued working, hammering out consensus language for disputed articles. That commission is responsible for the final document.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revolution was based on the expectations of the people for access to work and dignity in all its depths,\u201d said Lobna Jeribi, a member of the consensus commission. \u201cNow that is the slogan of Tunisia, and we tried to include all the components \u2014 the right to work, to health, education, freedom of conscience, freedom of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

The careful balancing led to some contradictions in the text, occasionally even within a single article, said Amira Yahyaoui, founder of Al Bawsala, a nonprofit that monitors the constituent assembly. \u201cThere are some very, very good articles and some bad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Yahyaoui noted that the Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, conscience and expression, but that it also said it was the state\u2019s duty to \u201cprotect the sacred,\u201d a phrase that reflects Islamists\u2019 desire to prevent abuse of Islam. The two passages, she said, are incompatible.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Fehri, the secular politician, said the balance was necessary. \u201cOur opinion is different, so you have two explanations for the same thing,\u201d he said, referring to an assembly member who is also an imam, who praised the first article from an Islamic point of view. \u201cSo when it comes to interpretation, they will take both into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human rights organization praised the Constitution, in particular for its recognition of universal human rights standards and conventions. \u201cWe are a far cry from how it was in the beginning,\u201d said Amna Guellali, a Tunisian lawyer and researcher for Human Rights Watch. Tunisia\u2019s laws do still discriminate against women on issues such as inheritance and child custody, and Ms. Guellali said it would be up to future governments to decide how the new Constitution changes that.<\/p>\n

There were moments during the voting in the semicircular assembly chamber that reflected the struggles faced in 30 years of opposition to the succession of dictators that formerly ruled Tunisia. For some, those struggles included discrimination, imprisonment and exile.<\/p>\n

When Article 45 was passed, guaranteeing women\u2019s rights and parity for women in elected bodies \u2014 a first in the Arab world \u2014 the chamber rose as one and sang the national anthem.<\/p>\n

For Amer Laarayedh, head of Ennahda\u2019s political bureau and brother of former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh, the most emotional moment was the passing of Article 20, which recognizes the rights of refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat touches me personally, because I was a refugee for 20 years in France,\u201d Mr. Laarayedh said. \u201cEveryone voted and then stood and applauded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking around the chamber, he saw members of the opposition celebrating. \u201cThey, too, were exiles in the \u201870s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some points of contention \u2014 including, notably, the division of powers between the president and Parliament \u2014 remained unresolved on Tuesday, the third anniversary of Tunisia\u2019s revolution. But two-thirds of the Constitution\u2019s articles had been passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did it in a very innovative, democratic way,\u201d Mr. Fehri said. \u201cI dream that kids who are 15 will look back when they are 60 and say, \u2018Those guys put us on the right track<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times, By CARLOTTA GALL JAN. 14, 2014 TUNIS \u2014 Tunisia\u2019s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new Constitution that legislators across the political spectrum, human rights organizations and constitutional experts are hailing as a triumph of consensus politics. Two years in the making and now in its third draft, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-constitution","category-democracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasminefoundation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}