For twenty years our college has attend the world`s most prestigious award ceremony in Oslo City Hall on the 10th of December. Unfortunately for the selected RCN ambassadors this year (Narender (India), Anna (Finland), Karma (Tibet), Maja (Poland), Maria (Colombia) and Abdul (Syria/Sweden) the school seats this year were overbooked. However, that did not prevent Karma and Anna from wearing their national customs.
This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian national dialogue quartet to their contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia. The Tunisian national dialogue quartet is a coalition of civil society groups that came together in the summer of 2013 when Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring, was at a crossroads between democracy and violence. The quartet comprises the following organizations in Tunisian civil society:
- The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT).
- The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA).
- The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH).
- The Tunisian Order of Lawyers.
Although not being able to attend the ceremony as such, a couple of our delegates had an exciting opportunity to attend the press conference and meet the winners in person. They also had a short conversation about the transition towards democracy in the Middle East with Abdessattar Bin Moussa, the President of the Tunisian Human Rights League.
The winners talked about the importance of the education among people, the effectiveness of tolerance among civil society representatives, the consequence of economic and living conditions and most important their role in promoting peace in Tunisia. It was interesting to follow their perspectives on the Jasmine revolution of 2011 and how they will manage to keep promoting peace in the future.
Written by Abdul Abo Shokur
