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Tunisia Publishes Draft Constitution ahead of July Vote

Tunisia's President Kais Saied gives a speech at the government's swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace outside the capital Tunis, Tunisia February 27, 2020. (Reuters)
Tunisia's President Kais Saied gives a speech at the government's swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace outside the capital Tunis, Tunisia February 27, 2020. (Reuters)
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Tunisia Publishes Draft Constitution ahead of July Vote

Tunisia's President Kais Saied gives a speech at the government's swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace outside the capital Tunis, Tunisia February 27, 2020. (Reuters)
Tunisia's President Kais Saied gives a speech at the government's swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace outside the capital Tunis, Tunisia February 27, 2020. (Reuters)

Tunisia on Thursday published the draft of a new constitution giving vastly more powers to the president, a text set to go to referendum on July 25, a year after President Kais Saied's dramatic power grab.

The new draft was published on Thursday evening in the official journal, less than a month before the referendum, AFP said.

As widely expected, it provides for a presidential system in a split from the mixed presidential-parliamentary system under the country's 2014 constitution.

Under the new document, "the president of the republic carries out executive functions with help from the government", whose chief would be appointed by the president and would not face a confidence vote in parliament.

The president would be the head of the armed forces and be charged with naming judges, who would be banned from striking.

The document would also water down the role of parliament, creating a new parliamentary chamber for "regions and districts", chiming with Saied's long-held vision for a decentralization of power.

The first article of the document removes references to both Islam and the civilian nature of Tunisia, simply saying that it is a "free, independent and sovereign state", adding lower down that it "belongs to the Islamic Ummah" (worldwide community).

The head of the committee that wrote the draft, pro-Saied legal expert Sadeq Belaid, had sparked a heated debate in recent weeks by suggesting in an interview with AFP that the reference to Islam be removed in order to tackle religious extremism.
Saied last July sacked the government and froze parliament, later moving to rule by decree and extending his powers over the judiciary and the electoral board.

Some Tunisians welcomed his moves against the sclerotic system that emerged from the country's revolt which had toppled dictator Zien El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

But others have warned that he is targeting political rivals and dragging the country back towards autocracy.

The International Commission of Jurists' regional director Said Benarbia warned that the new draft constitution "defeats the very idea of separation of powers and checks and balances".

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Arab World

Middle East Aid Workers Say Rules of War Being Flouted

Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP
Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP
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Middle East Aid Workers Say Rules of War Being Flouted

Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP
Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP

Flagrant violations of the laws of war in the escalating conflict in the Middle East are setting a dangerous precedent, aid workers in the region warn.

"The rules of war are being broken in such a flagrant way... (it) is setting a precedent that we have not seen in any other conflict," Marwan Jilani, the vice president of the Palestine Red Crescent (PCRS), told AFP.

Speaking last week during a meeting in Geneva of the 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, he lamented a "total disregard for human life (and) for international humanitarian law".

Amid Israel's devastating retaliatory operation on October 7 in the Gaza Strip , local aid workers are striving to deliver assistance while facing the same risks as the rest of the population, he said.

The PCRS has more than 900 staff and several thousand volunteers inside Gaza, where more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory's health ministry, and where the UN says virtually the entire population has been repeatedly displaced.

- 'Deliberate targeting' -

"They're part of the community," said Jilani. "I think every single member of our staff has lost family members."

He decried especially what he said was a "deliberate targeting of the health sector".

Israel rejects such accusations and maintains that it is carrying out its military operations in both Gaza and Lebanon in accordance with international law.

But Jilani said that "many of our staff, including doctors and nurses... were detained, were taken for weeks (and) were tortured".

Since the war began, 34 PRCS staff and volunteers have been killed in Gaza, and another two in the West Bank, "most of them while serving", he said.

Four other staff members are still being held, their whereabouts and condition unknown.

Jilani warned that the disregard for basic international law in the expanding conflict was eroding the belief that such laws even exist.

A "huge casualty of this war", he said, "is the belief within the Middle East that there is no international law".

- 'Unbelievable' -

Uri Shacham, chief of staff at the Israeli's emergency aid organization Magen David Adom (MDA), also decried the total disregard for laws requiring the protection of humanitarians.

- Gaza scenario looming -

The Red Cross in Lebanon, where for the past month Israel has been launching ground operations and dramatically escalating its airstrikes against Hezbollah, also condemned the slide.

Thirteen of its volunteers have been recently injured on ambulance missions.

One of its top officials, Samar Abou Jaoudeh, told AFP that they did not appear to have been targeted directly.

"But nevertheless, not being able to reach the injured people, and (missiles) hitting right in front of an ambulance is also not respecting IHL," she said, stressing the urgent need to ensure more respect for international law on the ground.

Abou Jaoudeh feared Lebanon, where at least 1,620 people have been killed since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, could suffer the same fate as Gaza.

"We hope that no country would face anything that Gaza is facing now, but unfortunately a bit of that scenario is beginning to be similar in Lebanon," she said.

The Lebanese Red Cross, she said, was preparing "for all scenarios... but we just hope that it wouldn't reach this point".