report Identity and Citizenship in Tunisia: The Situation of Minorities after the 2011 Revolution Silvia Quattrini Three Jewish boys stand near the Ghirba Synagogue in Djerba, during an annual pilgrimage for the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'Omer. Photographer: Zied Haddad Acknowledgements Minority Rights Group International This report has been produced with the financial assistance Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is a of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The non-governmental organization (NGO) working to secure contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Minority the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and Rights Group International and can under no circumstances indigenous peoples worldwide, and to promote cooperation be regarded as reflecting the position of the Ministry of and understanding between communities. Our activities are Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. focused on international advocacy, training, publishing and outreach. We are guided by the needs expressed by our worldwide partner network of organizations, which represent minority and indigenous peoples. MRG works with over 150 organizations in nearly 50 About the author countries. Our governing Council, which meets twice a Silvia Quattrini is the Middle East and North Africa Programmes year, has members from 10 different countries. MRG has Coordinator at Minority Rights Group International (MRG). She consultative status with the United Nations Economic and joined MRG in 2014, working from Tunisia until 2017. Her areas Social Council (ECOSOC), and observer status with the of interest include minority rights, women’s rights, gender African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights issues and cultural activism in the MENA region. She holds a (ACHPR). MRG is registered as a charity and a company Masters in Translation Studies (Arabic – English) from the limited by guarantee under English law: registered charity School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, no. 282305, limited company no. 1544957. and is currently pursuing an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Essex. © Minority Rights Group International (MRG), November 2018 All rights reserved Material from this publication may be reproduced for teaching or for other non-commercial purposes. No part of it may be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without the prior express permission of the copyright holders. For further information please contact MRG. A CIP catalogue record of this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-912938-07-0. Published November 2017. Identity and Citizenship in Tunisia: The Situation of Minorities after the 2011 Revolution is published by MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the issue which forms its subject. The text and views of the author do not necessarily represent in every detail and all its aspects, the collective view of MRG. Identity and Citizenship in Tunisia: The Situation of Minorities after the 2011 Revolution Contents Key Findings 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 5 Legal background: minority and indigenous rights frameworks in Tunisia 8 Religious minorities in Tunisia 13 Ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples 19 Conclusion 24 Recommendations 25 Notes 26 Key findings Key findings • Since the overthrow in January 2011 of the • For decades, successive Tunisian governments have authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, widely defined its national identity as Arab and Muslim. This has credited as the beginning of the Arab Spring, Tunisia not only marginalized religious minorities but has successfully established a functioning democracy also sidelined the country’s indigenous Amazigh and taken a number of positive steps to promote population through a long process of assimilation. The human rights in the country, including the drafting of same is true of the country’s black population which, the progressive 2014 Constitution. This has been while until recently largely invisible in the country’s public followed by a number of other legislative changes that life, has long been subjected to racial discrimination. have benefitted its minorities, including the passage in October 2018 of a law criminalizing racial discrimination. • Despite these encouraging developments, many • Tunisia’s achievements since the revolution have been religious communities continue to contend with the driven by a growing recognition of minorities, women and legacy of years of discrimination. While the right to other groups, as well as a willingness to provide a space freedom of religion is guaranteed in the Constitution, in for these marginalized voices to express their demands practice the only minorities currently recognized are the freely. However, much remains to be done to realize full Christian and Jewish communities. Other groups that equality for all and complete the country’s remarkable are not recognized, such as Bahá’í, face significant transition to a vibrant, inclusive democracy. This includes restrictions on their ability to worship freely. Pre- not only the repeal of pre-2011 discriminatory legislation revolutionary legislation on apostasy is also still used to and the implementation of its commitments in penalize Tunisians who have chosen to convert to international law, but also engagement and education at Christianity or identify as atheist. all levels of Tunisian society, including police, judiciary, religious leaders and the general public. 2 IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP IN TUNISIA: THE SITUATION OF MINORITIES AFTER THE 2011 REVOLUTION Executive summary In January 2011, after 23 years under the authoritarian migration of rural dwellers to urban centres in search of rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian employment.4 Along with high levels of poverty and people joined together in an uprising that ultimately joblessness, these regions are typically among those with brought his regime to an end. The so-called Jasmine the most sizeable minority and indigenous populations – Revolution – also known as the ‘Dignity Revolution’ or yet to date, the perspective of these communities in the the ‘social media revolution’ – is widely recognized as the development of regional strategies has been largely first chapter of the Arab Spring, inspiring a wave of invisible. More broadly, too, Tunisia’s religious and ethnic uprisings in its wake across the Middle East and North minorities still struggle for public recognition. This is due Africa (MENA) region. in part to the absence of official disaggregated data on The demonstrations in Tunisia began with the ethnic and religious minorities in general, especially their desperate and symbolic gesture of street vendor Mohamed distribution in different regions, as well as an extended Bouazizi who, on 17 December 2010, set himself on fire process of Arabization that only increased in the decades in front of the provincial governor’s headquarters in Sidi following Tunisia’s independence in 1956. These Bouzid, one of Tunisia’s most economically depressed conditions have not only obscured the extent of the regions, in protest against police harassment. On the same country’s diversity, which many are now trying to day, angry citizens had filled the streets in Sidi Bouzid and celebrate and revive today, but have also undermined the soon protests spread to other cities until they reached the rights of these communities to full citizenship. capital, Tunis, forcing Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia on Today the legacy of the Jasmine Revolution, almost 14 January 2011. eight years after the removal of Ben Ali, is uncertain. On Nevertheless, the 2011 uprising was also rooted in a the one hand, Tunisia’s economic travails continue, much longer history of injustice and discrimination, and reflected in the recent drop in the value of the Tunisian had been preceded by a number of protests that dinar and the persistence of high levels of unemployment. highlighted popular discontent against the government. On the other hand, in terms of civil and political rights, This included months of unrest in Gafsa in 2008, driven while much remains to be done, Tunisia has made by corruption and unemployment, that were brutally remarkable progress since 2011. In many ways, it offers a repressed by authorities, with three demonstrators killed, hopeful model for the promotion of democratic reform many others wounded and several handed lengthy prison and human rights not only to its neighbours in the region, sentences.1 Similar protests that took place in Ben Gardane but also other countries across the world. in August 2010 were also met with violence by police.2 This report, Identity and Citizenship in Tunisia: The Profound social frustrations, rooted in deep economic Situation of Minorities after the 2011 Revolution, inequalities as well as the state’s systematic human rights documents Tunisia’s achievements to date and also the violations, are commonly accepted as one of the primary significant rights gaps that many Tunisians, including its drivers of the Tunisian revolution. According to minority and indigenous populations, face. Drawing on governmental figures from 2011, the unemployment rate interviews with community representatives and activists was at 18.9 per cent, with even higher rates for certain conducted between August and October 2018, as well as governorates (South, Centre-West and North-West). The previous fieldwork and an extensive review of the available levels were especially high among university graduates, where literature,