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Tunisian democracy advocates win Nobel Peace Prize

By Amy R. Connolly
Tunisian women show their inked fingers after voting on October 23, 2011, at a Tunisian polling station . On Friday, the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet in Tunisia for helping to build democracy following the 2010-11 Arab Spring. File photo by Hichem Borni/UPI
Tunisian women show their inked fingers after voting on October 23, 2011, at a Tunisian polling station . On Friday, the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet in Tunisia for helping to build democracy following the 2010-11 Arab Spring. File photo by Hichem Borni/UPI | License Photo

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its "decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011."

The National Dialogue Quartet, formed in the summer of 2013, was created as democracy was in the danger of collapse as a result of political and social unrest following the 2010-11 Arab Spring.

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Kaci Kullmann Five, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award to the National Dialogue Quartet is intended to send a message that peaceful negotiation and consensus "is the best way to take care of a country's people."

The award should be seen as a message to the region and the world that Islamic and secular movements can work together, she said.

"We hope it will inspire people to see it is possible to work together, that this is in the best interest of everybody living in the country," she said in a live broadcast after the announcement, adding the message should be "loud and clear."

The Quartet is made up of four organizations: Tunisian General Labour Union, Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, Tunisian Human Rights League and Tunisian Order of Lawyers. The organizations represent differing values and sectors in Tunisian society.

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The quartet worked to facilitate a democratic election last year, paving the way "for a peaceful dialogue between the citizens, the political parties and the authorities and helped to find consensus-based solutions to a wide range of challenges across political and religious divides."

"On this basis, the Quartet exercised its role as a mediator and driving force to advance peaceful democratic development in Tunisia with great moral authority," the committee said.

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