Human rights in Tunisia

rdf:langString Human rights in Tunisia

rdf:langString The issue of human rights in Tunisia, is complex, contradictory, and, in some regards, confusing in the wake of the Tunisian revolution that began in January 2011 and overthrew the longstanding dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. While the immediate months after the revolution were characterized by significant improvements in the status of human rights, some of those advances have since been reversed. The situation remains in a state of flux, with different observers providing virtually irreconcilable accounts of the current status of human rights in that country. For most of the time since Freedom House began issuing its Freedom in the World ratings, Tunisia ranked near the bottom of the ratings; it consistently garnered "Not Free" rankings in all but a few years. Tunisia was upgraded to "Partly Free" after the revolution (often associated with the so-called Arab Spring, with its political rights rating improved from 7 to 3 (with 7 the worst and 1 the best) and its civil liberties rating going from 5 to 4. As of 2016, Tunisia has been upgraded to "Free"—the only Arab country to receive this rating.