The Club de Madrid wishes to congratulate Tunisian society as a whole, its political parties, civil society leaders, and all of those involved in this promising and inspiring process in a country that is laying the foundations for a democracy through dialogue and based on rights, equality and dignity.
We share the words of Mr. Houcine Abassi, the secretary general of the Tunisian General Labour Union, one of the organizations of the National Dialogue Quarter to Reuters about the Prize:
It’s a message that dialogue can lead us on the right path. This prize is a message for our region to put down arms and sit and talk at the negotiation table.
Club de Madrid is committed to support democratic transitions all over the world as part of its core mission. In the case of Tunisia this work started years before the Arab Spring and has been reinforced recently through projects like “Leaders Engaged with New Democracies Project”, “Political Leadership for Democratic Transitions in the MENA Region” and “Integrated Support Programme for Institutional Reform”.
Two former Prime Ministers of Tunisia, Hamadi Jebali and Mehdi Jomaa, have already been invited to join the Club de Madrid as a recognition of their efforts for their leadership efforts in moving forward the democratic transition process in their country. Additionally, the current Prime Minister of Tunisia Habid Essid is one of the key note speakers in our upcoming Policy Dialogue Madrid+10: Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism that will take place in Madrid on October 27-28, focusing of one the main challenges Tunisia and the region is facing.
The Club de Madrid vision perfectly matches the one expressed by the Constituent Assembly Speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar’s statement after the Constitution was approved: Tunisia has now “a new rendezvous with history to build a democracy founded on rights and equality”. With this global recognition that the Nobel Peace Prize has awarded to the Tunisian democratic transition experience, Club de Madrid expresses its support and its Members commitment with that rendezvous between Tunisian people and history, and even beyond, between democracy, prosperity, dignity and the whole Arab World.
