TUNISIA: TOWARDS RATIFYING INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS

February 1, 2011: the Tunisian government announced the ratification of the most important international conventions, the FIDH made public. The Council of Ministers of the transitional Tunisian government announced that the country will ratify the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court, the international convention against forced disappearances, the two additional optional protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the Second Optional Protocol regarding the abolition of the death penalty.
Furthermore, the government announced it is studying the possibility of removing Tunisia's reservations to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW Convention).
With these long awaited decisions, Tunisia moves closer to the most advanced universal norms concerning human rights. “It is the first time that this has happened in the region, and this must be emphasised,” Khadija Chérif, FIDH secretary general said. (Sources: FIDH, 02/02/2011)