The Role of Women in Tunisia from Bourguiba to the Promulgation of New Constitution

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202
Author(s):  
Leila El Houssi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
North African ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Political Modernity ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Radical Transformation

Abstract The question of women became one of those fundamental issues used by North African nations in order to demonstrate to Western countries just how “democratic” they were. In this regard, the legislation in favour of women’s emancipation in Tunisia undoubtedly reveals an important peculiarity. In 1956 Tunisia underwent an important modernisation following the independence obtained from France. This produced a social emancipation not found in other Islamic countries, resulting in the acquisition of women’s rights, for example, the abolition of polygamy. Since the 1970s, women have felt as if they are hostages to politics and, through some feminist associations, denounce inequalities despite enjoying certain rights, becoming aware of their subordination in a male-dominated society. With Bourguiba’s successor, Ben ʿAlī, assuming power in 1987, a policy emerged in which the rights of women seemed to be guaranteed, without guaranteeing human rights. And Tunisia revealed, much like other countries, a sort of mutilated modernity, in which the modernisation process was put in motion, without the modernising state committing itself to promoting a political modernity with the adoption of true democratic principles. Moreover, how much did the secularism of the Ben ʿAlī regime coincide with the transformation of Tunisian society? Perhaps the abuse of power by the dictator neutralised the paradigm of human rights? Social and cultural transformation beginning with Bourguiba and continuing with Ben ʿAlī produced an “Islamic-secular” country also as it relates to gender issues. But, with the victory of the Islamic party al-Nahḍayn the 2011 elections, will there be a radical transformation of women in society? And with Tunisia’s new constitution finally being adopted in January 2014, has it been considered a victory for women? This paper seeks to stimulate debate on the issue in the context of post-colonial studies through a social-historical perspective.

Reforming the Role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Advancing Democratic Principles and Human Rights in African Countries: An Examination Using the Lens of Swaziland/ eSwatini

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Sarkin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
The Status ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
Limited Compliance ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
African Commission

This article explores the role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the role it plays regarding human rights in individual country situations in Africa. It specifically examines the extent to which it has been able to advance a human rights agenda in countries with long-standing human rights problems. The article uses Swaziland/ eSwatini as a lens to examine the matter, because of the longstanding problems that exist in that country. This is done to indicate how the institution works over time on a country’s human rights problems. The article examines a range of institutional structural matters to establish how these issues affect the role of the Commission in its work. The article examines the way in which the Commission uses its various tools, including its communications, the state reporting processes, fact-finding visits, and resolutions, to determine whether those tools are being used effectively. The article examines how the Commission’s processes issues also affect it work. Issues examined negatively affecting the Commission are examined, including problems with the status of its resolutions and communications, limited compliance with its outcomes, and inadequate state cooperation. Reforms necessary to enhance to role and functions of the Commission are surveyed to determine how the institution could become more effective. The African Union’s (AU|) Kagame Report on AU reform is briefly reviewed to examine the limited view and focus of AU reform processes and why AU reform ought to focus on enhancing human rights compliance. The article makes various suggestions on necessary institutional reforms but also as far as the African Commission’s procedures and methods of work to allow it to have a far more effective role in the promotion and protection of human rights on the continent. It is noted that political will by the AU and African states is the largest obstacle to giving the Commission the necessary independence, support and assistance that it needs to play the role in Africa that it should.

A Balancing Act: The Norwegian Lutheran Mission in French Colonial Madagascar

Itinerario ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Karina Hestad Skeie
Keyword(s):  
European Country ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Role Of Religion

The plural and particularised expressions of colonialism remain a central concern for post-colonial studies. This paper will discuss the role of the Norwegian Lutheran mission in colonial Madagascar in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The case of a Protestant mission from a small European country operating in a French colony provides an interesting opportunity to explore the implications of inter-European dynamics in colonial politics and the role of religion in the relationships between missionaries, colonial subjects, and colonial powers.

scholarly journals PREFACE: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN CHILD, YOUTH AND FAMILY STUDIES

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon A. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Family Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Selection Of

<p>This special issue of the <em>International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies</em> offers critical insights into contemporary social justice issues impacting the lives of children and young people, their caregivers, and their communities. The authors write from a range of fields as they question taken-for-granted knowledges within social work, child welfare, health promotion, psychology, sociology, education, human rights, and women’s studies. As such, the collection includes feminist, post-colonial, post-structural, and post-modern analyses organized through an editorial standpoint of critical pedagogy. The preface offers additional insights into my own personal, professional, epistemological, and pedagogical locations that illuminate my role of guest editor, and further contextualizes the transdisciplinary selection of manuscripts within a social justice discourse.</p>

scholarly journals Post-Colonial Rome, and Beyond

2021 ◽  
pp. 309-320
Author(s):  
Andrew Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Roman Archaeology ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
The Impact

Roman archaeology is one of the major subfields of archaeology in which post-colonial theory has flourished, and not just in relation to the role of the past in the present, but also as a means to approach the interpretation of the Roman world itself. The region of North Africa was a major focal point for some of the earliest post-colonial studies on the Roman Empire, and has remained an arena of investigation for scholars influenced by the Anglophone debate on post-colonial theory, which emerged in the 1980s and flourished in the 1990s, often with a focus on Roman Britain. Religion is both a key source of evidence and an obviously important theme in understanding cultural change, interaction and power, and thus it has likewise been of interest to scholars from within and beyond the region. Here, I give an overview of the work of some of the influential Roman archaeologists working within the post-colonial tradition. I also consider the complex intersections of ancient and modern, and of Britain and North Africa, found in this body of work, and evaluate the impact this tradition of thought continues to have on Roman archaeology going forwards.

scholarly journals Embodying Memories: The Women Rights Movement „#NiUnaMenos “ and the Women Narratives about State Repression in Argentina

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (30) ◽  
pp. 115-135
Author(s):  
Verónica Ada Abrego
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Women's Literature ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
State Repression ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Women Rights

Since 2015 a new human rights movement struggle against violence against women, Ni una menos. From the perspective of cultural studies, there is a strong link between these women struggling for cultural transformation and the long lasting battle against oblivion carried out by Argentinas Human Rights Movement and especially, by the Mother and Grandmother of Plaza the Mayo. Against the background of state terrorism and its literature written by women, this contribution reflects on methodology studying Argentina women’s literature on state repression and also on the role of women as agents of social transformation.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights under the 2010 Constitutional Dispensation

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-226
Author(s):  
Bonolo Ramadi Dinokopila ◽  
Rhoda Igweta Murangiri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
National Commission ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
National Human ◽  
The Status ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

This article examines the transformation of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and discusses the implications of such transformation on the promotion and protection of human rights in Kenya. The article is an exposition of the powers of the Commission and their importance to the realisation of the Bill of Rights under the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. This is done from a normative and institutional perspective with particular emphasis on the extent to which the UN Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles, 1993) have been complied with. The article highlights the role of national human rights commissions in transformative and/or transitional justice in post-conflict Kenya. It also explores the possible complementary relationship(s) between the KNCHR and other Article 59 Commissions for the better enforcement of the bill of rights.

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