The History of the Tunisian Human Rights Movement: A case study of Arab Human Rights Activism

This project looks into the history of the Tunisian human rights movement. It aims at contributing to increased knowledge of the dynamics underpinning Arab human rights activism, in particular that of the Tunisian Human Rights League, the first independent human rights organisation in the Arab world and a 2015 Nobel Prize Winner. Human rights have been at the forefront of politics in the Middle East and North Africa for decades. Despite this fact, only a limited number of academic writings deal with Arab human rights activism leaving important gaps in the understanding of its social and political dynamics as well as links to the international environment. The first generation of Arab human rights activists has reached an age making it urgent to collect life histories before it is too late.