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Tunisia
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Tunisia is a republic dominated by a strong presidential system and a single political party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD). After the country gained independence from France in 1956, Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba, implemented substantial social and economic reforms and invested heavily in education. Tunisia's 1956 personal status code, the Code du Statut Personnel (CSP), afforded women full and equal legal rights and remains one of the most progressive family laws in the Arab world today. In 1987, Bourguiba was deposed in a bloodless coup by current President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. While President Ben Ali maintained some of Bourguiba's positive initiatives, he ... continued restrictions on political rights and civil liberties, falling short on his promises for greater political openness. A constitutional referendum was passed in 2003 to allow Ben Ali to seek an unprecedented fourth five-year term in the elections of 2004.
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Tunisia has long been a voice for moderation and realism in the Middle East. President Bourguiba was the first Arab leader to call for the recognition of Israel, in a speech in Jericho in 1965. Tunisia served as the headquarters of the Arab League from 1979 to 1990 and hosted the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) headquarters from 1982 to 1993. (The PLO Political Department remains in Tunis.) Tunisia consistently has played a moderating role in the negotiations for a comprehensive Middle East peace. In 1993, Tunisia was the first Arab country to host an official Israeli delegation as part of the Middle East peace process. The Government of Tunisia operated an Interests Section in Israel from April 1996 until the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000.
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[O]f heavy investments in the telecom sector since the mid-1990s, Tunisia now has one of the most developed telecommunications infrastructures in Northern Africa with a fixed-line teledensity of more than 12%. The mobile sector has experienced exceptional growth, especially since a second operator was licensed in 2002. Various 3G trial systems have been installed and as one of the first in Africa the country saw its first 3G call made in 2004. Internet access is available country-wide with a fibre optic backbone and international access via submarine cables, terrestrial and satellite links. In 2006 a 35% stake in the incumbent telco, Tunisie Telecom, was sold to a UAE-based consortium.
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Despite its relatively small size, Tunisia has great geographical and climactic diversity. The Dorsal, an extension of the Atlas Mountains, traverses Tunisia in a northeasterly direction from the Algerian border in the west to the Cape Bon peninsula. North of the Dorsal is the Tell, a region characterized by low, rolling hills and plains, although in the northwestern corner of Tunisia, the land reaches elevations of 1,050 meters. The Sahil is a plain along Tunisia's eastern Mediterranean coast famous for its olive monoculture. Inland from the Sahil, between the Dorsal and a range of hills south of Gafsa, are the Steppes. Much of the southern region is semi-arid and desert.
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The beginnings of modern nationalism in Tunisia emerged before the outbreak of the war, with hopes of greater Tunisian participation in government encouraged during the war by pronouncements such as the Fourteen Points (1918) of Woodrow Wilson. When these hopes were not realized, Tunisians formed a moderate nationalist grouping, the Destour ("Constitutional") Party. Dissatisfaction over the group's poor organization led, in 1934, to a split: the more active members, led by Habib Bourguiba, founded the Neo-Destour Party. France responded to demands for internal autonomy with repression, including the deposition and exile of the sovereign Munsif Bey. On 23 August 1945, the two Destour parties proclaimed that the will of the Tunisian people was independence. But the French still held firm.
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Tunisia is noteworthy for its lack of public political discourse. Tunisia's precise political situation is hard to determine due to a strong level of silence and lack of transparency maintained by the government. There is compelling evidence that dissidents are routinely arrested, for crimes as minor as viewing banned web sites. There are currently six legal opposition parties all with their own newspapers. However, the Committee to Protect Journalists, in its 2005 country report on Tunisia, details a persistent record of harassment, persecution, imprisonment, and physical harm perpetrated on journalists critical of the government. Even Western journalists, when writing on Tunisian soil, are not spared this fate.[2]
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