This past Friday, the Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Kaci Kullmann Five announced this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Relaying to the mantra of peace in our society, a kind of peace that creates an impact in the rest of the world, Five announce 2015’s Peace Prize winners as the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet.
The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet is a collective network of four civic society organisations namely the Tunisian Organisation for Industry Trade and Handcrafts, the Tunisian Order of Lawyers, the Tunisian General Labour Union and the Tunisian Human Rights League.
The Quartet are awarded particularly for the critical and significant impact they played in creating a pro-democratic Tunisia – particularly at the rise of the Arab Springs and shortly after the assassination of leftist politician Mohamed al Brahmi in 2013. The Arab Springs were a revolutionary time in the Arab World, dating back to 18th December of 2010 where violent and non-violent demonstrations were staged throughout Tunisia. These revolutionary acts then spread out to Arab nations, where today, we still see scars of the revolution in Syria and along the Palestine region.
The country which was caught between a web of a rising of political Islam versus traditional secular politics that were practices for decades on end gripped into war, due to heavy political differences. Through the work of the dialogue group, riddled with young revolutionaries, the first freely contested presidential elections were held last December.
According to Houcine Abassi, leader of the Tunisian General Labour Union informed the press that the award is a tribute to martyrs of a democratic Tunisia – further stating that the effort by youth has allowed the country to turn the page on dictatorship.
Although the road to peace and stability is riddled with challenges of conflicting political views and differences on running the economy, it is important to take notice to work done by groups such as this, for they will be written in history as one of the key makers in setting peace and security in the Arab World.
