TUNIS, Tunisia, March 20 (UPI) -- Post-revolution Tunisia has the opportunity to make a clean break from the past with a constitution that respects international rights, an advocacy group said.
Human Rights Watch called on the country's constituent assembly to draft a constitution that respects international human rights law as part of domestic law.
"The constituent assembly has an important opportunity to ensure a break with the abusive practices and laws of the Ben Ali era, by adopting robust guarantees for human rights," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement from Tunis.
The newly formed Tunisian Front of Islamic Associations last week called for demonstrations to implement Shariah, or Islamic, law in post-revolution Tunisia.
Islamic party Ennahda won the plurality of parliamentary seats in an October election for the 217-person national assembly.
Former Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled last year to Saudi Arabia, is on trial in absentia for his alleged role in the deaths of protesters during the country's Jasmine Revolution in January 2011.
At least 250 people died during the revolution seen as sparking the so-called Arab Spring last year.
