Amnesty International considers all individuals convicted solely for their peacefully held views to be prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release.

Human rights groups and political entities are calling on Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly to enshrine human rights treaties in the new constitution. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the assembly March 19th urging it to solidify international rights treaties in the constitution. The group also urged parliamentarians to avoid vague wording, such as 'must exercise the rights as required by law', as well as providing mechanisms for the application of human rights, which could include establishment of a constitutional court and imposition of the obligation of all courts and state institutions to respect the human rights enshrined by the Constitution.

The Tunisian unemployment rate reached 18.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, with nearly three-quarters of jobless citizens under the age of 30. The rate marks a 0.6 per cent rise from the second quarter of 2011, according to data released by the Tunisian National Institute of Statists (INS) on 23 February. The total number of jobless Tunisians was reported at more than 738,000, a jump of 33,500 people.

The development of the new constitution must follow a participatory approach: the government must provide and implement clear mechanisms for the participation of the Tunisian people in this historical process, which go beyond simple monitoring of and via the media. This was one of the recommendations made by participants of the seminar 'guarantying freedom of expression in the Constitution' organised by ARTICLE 19, Alpha Steppa, the development league of Kasserine, and Moulahedh at Sbeitla from 25 to 26 February.

Hundreds of Tunisians in the capital and the wilaya of Sfax took to the streets recently to demand that the interim government shoulder its responsibility for the rising price of basic goods. 'I can no longer provide for what my family of eight needs,' Mondher Welhazi, 56, told Magharebia. He added, 'All the prices of basic materials in terms of vegetables and meat rose after the revolution in a frightening, alarming way. I am embarrassed before my children as I can no longer bring them what they want.'

After decades of producing sharply worded critiques of the former regime, Om Zied isn't quieting down in the new Tunisia, or even dulling her verbal blade. 'Cavemen' is the word she used on the radio a couple of months ago to describe the ultra-conservative Salafists at the University of Manouba, in a suburb of Tunis. Salafists were pressuring administrators to permit women to wear the niqab, a full face veil, to classes. During the same radio interview the self-avowed secularist argued that few Islamists had ever tried to defend the rights of veiled women under the regime of the ousted president, Ben Ali.

Tunis judge Faouzi Jebali has granted Nasreddine Ben Saida, the publisher of the daily Attounissia, a provisional release and postponed his trial until 8 March. Ben Saida, who went on hunger strike, was held for more than a week for publishing a photo of a football player embracing a naked model.

The January 2011 revolution in Tunisia brought an end to Internet filtering and control of online content but old habits seem to be resurfacing and Reporters Without Borders urges the Tunisian courts not to take any decision that could lead to the restoration of filtering. A court order requiring the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block access to pornographic websites, upheld by a Tunis appeal court in August 2011, revived the debate about censorship. If the order is confirmed, the ATI will be forced to censor online content in accordance with a complaint brought by a group of lawyers calling for the blocking of pornographic content that poses a threat to minors and Muslim values.

IMF held up Tunisia under Ben Ali as a model, yet ordinary people fed up with his excesses overthrew the regime. Now IMF appears to be courting the new leadership.

On the anniversary of the revolution, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG), a coalition of 21 IFEX members, urges the Tunisian government to revoke its recent controversial appointments giving media personnel close to the deposed President key posts in the public service media. The IFEX-TMG also further reiterates its call for journalists to be allowed to freely carry out their work, after another journalist was attacked during a demonstration last week.

The Tunisian revolution was, famously, initiated by the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, a young man in a provincial town who set himself alight in front of the town hall in protest at petty corruption and his inability to make a living. In the six months immediately after Bouazizi's death (he took two weeks to die from his injuries) at least 107 fellow Tunisians tried to kill themselves by setting themselves on fire, according to statistics reported by the BBC.

On the verge of officially forming a coalition government to run the country and rewrite the nation’s pre-revolution constitution, Tunisia’s dominant, Islamist political party Ennahda has come under fire for its economic neo-liberalism, both from opponents and from coalition partners. While Ennahda has been able to placate secularists by officially advocating personal and religious freedom, it is reaching out to the international financial community and big business by pledging to counterbalance its left-wing coalition partners.

Thousands of Tunisian Islamists and secularists staged parallel protests outside the interim parliament in a dispute over how big a role Islam should play in society after the country's 'Arab Spring' uprising, and subsequent election. Tensions have been running high between the two camps since the revolt in January scrapped a ban on parties that advocate political Islam, paving the way for a moderate Islamist party to come to power at the head of a coalition government.

The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region has been (and remains) a fascinating testing ground for the media and politics and has inspired, among numerous other independent productions, a documentary film that features the voices of North African and African immigrants living in Italy. Called #Revolution, this short video was filmed in Padua and Bologna by citizen-reporters belonging to the Voci Globali association.

In an article written on the eve of the country’s elections last month, Marieme Helie Lucas explores ‘what women have to lose, should fundamentalists come to power in Tunisia.’

After 23 October elections to the Tunisian Constituent Assembly, strikes have broken out in numerous sectors, including airport, postal and oil workers, against poor wages and working conditions. These strikes underscore popular opposition to the entire political establishment, which has still not succeeded in assembling a government based on the elections, says The 23 October poll gave the right-wing Islamist party Ennahda the most seats in the 217-member Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly is tasked with drafting a new constitution and appoint an interim government.

For Mohammed Bouaz, the vegetable seller who set himself on fire December 17, 2010 in the Tunisian city of SidiBouZid.

It is too early to predict the future of democracy in Tunisia, writes Samir Amin, but ‘only the rapid crystallisation of a radical left wing, going well beyond the demand for proper elections, can allow the resumption of a struggle for a change worthy of its name’.

The Islamically-oriented Ennahdha movement won the elections in Tunisia with a commanding 42 per cent of the vote. How will Western political leaders, long prone to influence by Islamophobic voices, respond?

The aftermath of elections in Tunisia
Samir Amin
The people of Tunisia had a participatory and democratic election as they wanted. However, defining this achievement as ‘a revolution’ would be an error, according to Samir Amin. He argues that fundamental issues need to be addressed in order for sustainable democracy to reign in Tunisia. [=http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/77537
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Tunisia: What to say? What to do?
Freddy Mathieu
From five core observations made about the elections in Tunisia, Freddy Mathieu draws a conclusion. ‘The victory of Ennahdha marks the close of a chapter; however a lot remains to be desired. Its consolidation does not solve the important issues that led the Tunisian citizens through the revolutionary whirlwind. Instead, this consolidation makes the issues more pronounced. [=http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/77536
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Ennahda: The success story returns
Jeunesse du jasmin
The historical persecution of Muslims under Bourguiba’s regime has led to Islamists’ current establishment in Tunisia. This alone cannot explain their surprising breakthrough. Some pressing factors have led to the results. The obvious one is the deeply rooted inequalities in this country in which the social divisions have crossed over into religious rifts
[=http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/77534
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After the USA, China is doing its shopping in Europe
Jean- Paul Pougala
Europe is no longer that exemplary power that used to tower over other countries. This illusion has been maintained by baffled leaders who cannot get over it. The last Brussels summit showed once again the meaning of ‘When China awakens’.
Jean- Paul Pougala rejoices for Africans that, after 500 years, there is a new hunter on the international scene to contain the traditional predators’.
[=htttp://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/77530
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Gaddafi: The glory of the defeated
Joseph Eroumé
Lumumba backtracked towards death, Sankara challenged it, Gaddafi did not flee from it. Faced with this trilogy of destiny, Joseph Enuma proclaims: ‘Better die than give up, when one defends a just and noble cause: His own people’. For him, the murder the Libyan leader, like what happened to Ivory Coast, puts Africans in the lead to face their responsibilities and build a defense against the West and its interests.
[=http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/77531
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Rwanda-France: Can we just forget?
Bertold du Ryon

After 17 years, France bore the burden of its responsibilities in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, despite the denials. And last September when President Kagame went on an official visit to Paris he made a declaration in very certain terms that time had come to look towards ‘the future’ and not to be ‘enslaved by the past’. Thus, according to Bertold du Ryon, there comes a point in time where political and economical interests start forsaking history.
[=http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/77533