Human Rights in Tunisia: Options and Accomplishments

Chapter2
Human Rights in Tunisia: Options and Accomplishments

Table of Contents

Declaration of November 7th,1987

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

4 - The Right to Work

– The International Labor Convention no. 122 pertaining to employment policy provides that the signatory states pledge to consider as an essential objective the preparation and enforcement of an active policy to encourage employment, in a context that ensures production and freedom of choice.
– Since the Change, prospects for employment in Tunisia have become reassuring and promising, thanks to the political stability and social peace that now prevail in the country and due also to rapid progress in realizing the strategy to promote employment, based on stimulating economic growth, modernizing vocational training, improving the output of programs of adjustment and first-time employment, and achieving greater development of the small-business sector.
– Tunisia has striven to strengthen and reinforce its advances by consistently improving the regulations governing the conditions for labor.
– The Labor Code has been amended a number of times, to confirm the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender (1993), to improve the functioning of mechanisms to settle individual labor conflicts (1994), and to encourage and accompany the country's economic development by organizing new forms of work contract and by improving the labor environment (1996).
– President Ben Ali chaired the opening of the International Labor Conference in Geneva (1995), bearing witness to Tunisia's accomplishments in the fields of social development, employment and protection of workers' rights.
– To strengthen the mechanisms by which the employment issue is handled, President Ben Ali has called for a national conference to study all possible ways and means of handling the different aspects of the employment problem.
On July 13, 1998, the political parties, labor, management and the national organizations, under the high patronage of President Ben Ali, adopt the national declaration on employment.
– Presiding over the closing session of the national conference on employment, the President announced a series of measures intended to increase the rate of job creation and called for the holding of a national campaign to employ the largest possible number of university graduates. Among these measures are the following:

To raise the maximum investment eligible for interventions by the Fund for Industrial Promotion and Decentralization (FOPRODI) from one to three million dinars.

To encourage banks to finance small and medium-scale projects.

To grant new promoters subsidies for studies and technical assistance.

To set in place a series of mechanisms to encourage young graduates to open their own businesses.

To set up a special program to support small trades and handicrafts.

To generalize the English-language teaching program in the sections of the Bourguiba Institute for Modern Languages throughout the country.
To implement an integrated plan for drop-outs from the first cycles of instruction.
To modify the military service program in such a way as to allow young people to obtain a diploma of professional qualification, and upgrading, after the period of basic military training.

Chapter2		Human Rights in Tunisia: Options and Accomplishments



	Table of Contents Declaration of November 7th,1987 Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X		Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 4 - The Right to Work – The International Labor Convention no. 122 pertaining to employment policy provides that the signatory states pledge to consider as an essential objective the preparation and enforcement of an active policy to encourage employment, in a context that ensures production and freedom of choice. – Since the Change, prospects for employment in Tunisia have become reassuring and promising, thanks to the political stability and social peace that now prevail in the country and due also to rapid progress in realizing the strategy to promote employment, based on stimulating economic growth, modernizing vocational training, improving the output of programs of adjustment and first-time employment, and achieving greater development of the small-business sector. – Tunisia has striven to strengthen and reinforce its advances by consistently improving the regulations governing the conditions for labor. – The Labor Code has been amended a number of times, to confirm the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender (1993), to improve the functioning of mechanisms to settle individual labor conflicts (1994), and to encourage and accompany the country's economic development by organizing new forms of work contract and by improving the labor environment (1996). – President Ben Ali chaired the opening of the International Labor Conference in Geneva (1995), bearing witness to Tunisia's accomplishments in the fields of social development, employment and protection of workers' rights. – To strengthen the mechanisms by which the employment issue is handled, President Ben Ali has called for a national conference to study all possible ways and means of handling the different aspects of the employment problem. On July 13, 1998, the political parties, labor, management and the national organizations, under the high patronage of President Ben Ali, adopt the national declaration on employment. – Presiding over the closing session of the national conference on employment, the President announced a series of measures intended to increase the rate of job creation and called for the holding of a national campaign to employ the largest possible number of university graduates. Among these measures are the following: To raise the maximum investment eligible for interventions by the Fund for Industrial Promotion and Decentralization (FOPRODI) from one to three million dinars. To encourage banks to finance small and medium-scale projects. To grant new promoters subsidies for studies and technical assistance. To set in place a series of mechanisms to encourage young graduates to open their own businesses. To set up a special program to support small trades and handicrafts. To generalize the English-language teaching program in the sections of the Bourguiba Institute for Modern Languages throughout the country. To implement an integrated plan for drop-outs from the first cycles of instruction. To modify the military service program in such a way as to allow young people to obtain a diploma of professional qualification, and upgrading, after the period of basic military training.