Merkel and Pope snubbed as Tunisian nation-builders land Nobel peace prize

Favourites The Pope and Angela Merkel were overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday as it went to those who tried to build a new future for Tunisia. The decision to award the $972,000 prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet came as a surprise to many who expected a higher-profile candidate to take the honour. Instead, the Nobel committee selected the quartet “for its decisive contribution to building a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine revolution of 2011”. It was among 273 contenders for this year’s award, five fewer than last year.

It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war

Nobel Prize committee citation for Tunisia quartet

Announcing the award the committee said the quartet was honoured for its work in helping ensure Tunisia post-Arab Spring was broadly peaceful and democratic. It was directly comparable to the peace conferences mentioned by Alfred Nobel in his will, it added. The quartet, made up of Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers, was formed in 2013. Committee chairman Kaci Kullmann Five said: “The quartet exercised its role as a mediator and driving force to advance peaceful democratic development in Tunisia with great moral authority.”

More than anything, the prize is intended as an encouragement to the Tunisian people, who despite major challenges have laid the groundwork for a national fraternity which the committee hopes will serve as an example to be followed by other countries

Nobel Prize committee

World nobel peace prize