Nobel Peace Prize 2015: The National Dialogue Quartet's Peace Mission

This note covers the Nobel Peace Prize 2015: who won it, the Jasmine Revolution and Arab Spring background that it responds to, what the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet actually did in 2013 and 2014, the reasons the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave, how the award unfolded, why it matters and quick facts for exams.

What was the Nobel Peace Prize 2015 awarded for?

The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 was awarded to the 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".

In plain language, this means that the Quartet, a group of four Tunisian civil-society organisations, is credited with stopping Tunisia from sliding into civil war in 2013 and instead steering the country towards a new, more democratic constitution and free elections.

A "pluralistic democracy" is a political system in which many different groups, parties and beliefs are allowed to compete and be represented, rather than one party or leader controlling everything.

The "Jasmine Revolution" is the name commonly used for the Tunisian uprising of 2010 to 2011 that removed the country's long-serving president.

The prize was announced on 9 October 2015 and formally presented at the award ceremony in Oslo on 10 December 2015. It carried a prize amount of 8,000,000 Swedish kronor.

The official name of this award is the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the five original prizes created under the will of Alfred Nobel, and the only one awarded in Oslo, Norway rather than Stockholm, Sweden.

Who are the laureates?

Unusually for a Peace Prize, the laureate is not a single person but a coalition of four organisations acting together as one body, known as the National Dialogue Quartet.

The prize committee stressed that it was awarding the Quartet as a single entity, not the four organisations individually, and gave it the whole prize (prize share 1/1).

The Quartet's residence at the time of the award was recorded as Tunisia.

Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT)

The UGTT (Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail) is Tunisia's main trade union, representing working life and welfare concerns.

Its Secretary General, Hassine Abassi, took the initiative that led the four organisations to jointly put forward a plan to resolve the 2013 national crisis, which became the basis of the national dialogue process.

Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA)

UTICA (Union Tunisienne de l'Industrie, du Commerce et de l'Artisanat) represented business and employer interests within the Quartet. Its president at the time, Ouided Bouchamaoui, was one of the Quartet's four representatives who attended the Oslo ceremony.

Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH)

The LTDH (La Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des Droits de l'Homme) brought the perspective of human-rights principles to the dialogue. Its president, Abdessatar Ben Moussa, represented the League at the award ceremony.

Tunisian Order of Lawyers (ONAT)

ONAT (Ordre National des Avocats de Tunisie) contributed expertise in the rule of law to the process. Its president, Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh, was the fourth of the Quartet's representatives honoured at the ceremony.

Together, these four organisations covered working life, business, human rights and legal principles, which the committee said gave the Quartet the moral authority to act as a neutral mediator.

What was the background to the Tunisian crisis?

The events behind this prize began in Tunisia in December 2010, the starting point of what became known across the region as the Arab Spring.

On 17 December 2010, a 26-year-old fruit and vegetable seller named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid in protest against the corruption and misrule he faced.

According to the award ceremony speech, this tragic act triggered long-suppressed anger that spread through social media into nationwide protests, and four weeks later the country's long-serving president, Ben Ali, fled to Saudi Arabia.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee's ceremony speech quoted an old Tunisian saying used to describe this moment: "the multitude is stronger than the king".

This popular uprising is the Jasmine Revolution named in the official citation, and it is also usually treated as the opening event of the wider Arab Spring, which then spread to several other countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

The ceremony speech also quoted a 19-year-old Tunisian author, Samar al-Mazghani, who had written shortly before the revolution about the hopelessness felt under the Ben Ali dictatorship, describing a life with "no dreams, or we dream with no life" and dreams "postponed until something happens to change this reality". This quotation was used by the committee to explain the mood that made the uprising possible.

After the revolution, a government led by the Islamist party Ennahda tried to write provisions into a new constitution that would have reduced the rights that Tunisian women already had, even though the speech noted that Tunisian women had enjoyed greater freedom than women in other Arab countries even before the revolution, and now wanted full equality rather than reduced rights.

Two political assassinations and the deaths of eight Tunisian soldiers at the hands of terrorists, along with large anti-government demonstrations, pushed the situation towards a dangerous breaking point, with many worried that the security situation was spinning out of control.

By the summer of 2013, according to the press release, Tunisia's democratisation process was in danger of collapsing and the country was described as being on the brink of civil war. It was against this backdrop of unrest that the four organisations decided to act together.

What did the National Dialogue Quartet actually do?

It was at this critical point that the four organisations came together to form the National Dialogue Quartet in the summer of 2013.

Their aim was to build an alternative, peaceful political process that could pull Tunisia back from the edge of collapse. The sequence of what they did, as described in the award ceremony speech, ran roughly as follows.

1. At the initiative of UGTT's Hassine Abassi, the four organisations jointly proposed a national dialogue, to be overseen by the Quartet, in which the 21 political parties in the Constituent Assembly would take part on equal terms regardless of each party's size.
2. The national dialogue aimed to be fair and compromise-based, giving every group a voice and treating each party equally no matter how many seats it held.
3. The Quartet made the parties sign a plan that became known as the "road map", under which the sitting three-party government would give up power and a non-partisan, technocratic government would govern the country until new elections.
4. The road map also required the Constituent Assembly to finish drafting the new constitution by a set deadline and to set up an independent commission to organise parliamentary and presidential elections in the autumn of 2014.
5. The government first rejected the proposal, but after prolonged and difficult negotiations the Quartet brought all sides to the table, and a breakthrough came when the governing parties agreed, one after another, to step down once the new constitution was adopted.
6. With the road map agreed, the Constituent Assembly completed the constitution within the agreed time limit, working closely with the Quartet, and Tunisia's new constitution was adopted on 26 January 2014.
7. In line with the road map, the sitting Troika government resigned in favour of a caretaker government, and the Quartet's self-defined mediating role concluded at that point; the ultimate validation of its work came in the autumn of 2014, when parliamentary and presidential elections were successfully held and the caretaker government and interim president were replaced by lawfully elected successors.

Through this process the Quartet acted as a mediator, not as a government or a party itself, giving every political faction a stake in the outcome rather than letting any one side dominate by force.

The ceremony speech described Tunisia's resulting constitution, adopted on 26 January 2014, as the most egalitarian and democratic constitution anywhere in the Arab world, a point the committee chair returned to more than once in explaining why the achievement mattered so much.

What reasons did the Norwegian Nobel Committee give?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee set out several specific reasons for honouring the Quartet in its press release and ceremony speech, each pointing to something the committee saw as remarkable about Tunisia's path.

First, the committee noted that Islamist and secular political movements worked together during the drafting of the new constitution, showing, in the committee's words, that such cooperation "can work together to achieve significant results in the country's best interests".

Second, it highlighted the role of women, who took the lead in resisting both political violence and attempts to weaken their constitutional rights.

Third, it pointed to Tunisia's repeated peaceful transfers of power between governments and presidents since 2011, crediting politicians and parties for accepting electoral outcomes even when this meant stepping aside.

Fourth, the committee stressed the wider importance of civil society: when political institutions and parties could not resolve the crisis on their own, organisations such as the Quartet stepped in and took on national responsibility.

The press release also compared the Quartet's broad national dialogue, which it said countered the spread of violence, to the kind of peace congresses that Alfred Nobel referred to in his will, linking the award directly back to the founding purpose of the prize.

The committee added that it hoped the award would help safeguard democracy in Tunisia and inspire similar efforts elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.

How did the four organisations share the work?

Although the Quartet acted and was awarded the prize as a single body, each of its four member organisations brought a different kind of authority and a different section of Tunisian society into the dialogue, as the table below summarises.

The press release explained that this spread of sectors, covering working life and welfare on one side and the rule of law and human rights on the other, is exactly what gave the Quartet enough moral authority to act as a trusted mediator above party politics, rather than as another faction fighting for its own interests.

How did the work develop?

The table below traces the main stages of the crisis and the dialogue, from the start of the uprising in Tunisia to the award ceremony in Oslo.

This timeline shows how quickly the crisis of 2013 was turned around: within little more than a year of the Quartet's formation, Tunisia had both a new constitution and a freely elected government.

Why does it matter?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the prize was meant, above all, to encourage the Tunisian people, who had laid the groundwork for national unity despite major challenges.

It hoped the award would help safeguard Tunisia's still-fragile democracy and serve as an example for other countries attempting similar transitions after the Arab Spring.

The committee was open about the fact that Tunisia still faced significant political, economic and security challenges even after the award.

In the ceremony speech, the committee chair noted that Tunisia's security problems could not be solved by security measures, states of emergency or ideological battles alone, and also required economic and political reform, including a sustained effort against corruption.

The speech also linked Tunisia's situation to a wider regional refugee crisis, arguing that wider adoption of dialogue, tolerance, democracy and equal rights, as practised in Tunisia, could have meant far fewer people were forced to flee their homes.

The committee chair described the threats facing Tunisia, including terrorist attacks it mentioned in cities such as Beirut, Ankara, Paris, Bamako and Tunis, as essentially the same threat faced by other countries, arguing that this was a reason for the international community to stand with Tunisia and invest in its continued development.

Beyond Tunisia itself, the committee presented the Quartet's story as evidence that Islamist and secular movements can cooperate within a democratic framework, and that civil-society organisations, rather than only governments or armed actors, can play a decisive part in building peace.

The speech drew a comparison between Tunisia's new constitution, adopted in 2014, and Norway's own constitution, whose 200th anniversary fell in the same year, expressing hope that future generations in Tunisia would look back on the Quartet with the same pride that Norwegians feel for their constitution's framers.

This is one reason the award is often cited in general-knowledge and current-affairs contexts as an example of grassroots, institution-based peacebuilding rather than a prize for a single celebrated individual.

How is this prize different from most Nobel Peace Prizes?

Most Nobel Peace Prizes recognise one or two named individuals for a specific act or body of work. The 2015 prize instead went to a coalition of four organisations acting jointly as a single laureate, which the committee stressed explicitly in both the press release and the ceremony speech.

The press release stated plainly that the prize was awarded "to this Quartet, not to the four individual organizations as such", which is why no single leader stood alone to receive the award on Tunisia's behalf; instead, one representative from each member organisation attended the Oslo ceremony together.

The committee's reasoning rested on the idea that no one organisation, acting alone, could have brought the warring political factions to the table. It was precisely because the Quartet combined a trade union, an employers' body, a human-rights league and a lawyers' order that it could claim to stand above party politics rather than represent any single interest.

The ceremony speech framed this as central to the whole story: the Quartet exercised its role as mediator and driving force for peaceful democratic development because its diversity of membership gave it moral authority that no single faction could claim on its own.

This structure also meant the prize recognised an ongoing process of institution-building rather than a single dramatic event. The committee linked the Quartet's achievement to the kind of peace congresses that Alfred Nobel mentioned in his will, treating sustained, inclusive dialogue as itself a form of peacemaking comparable to ending a war or signing a treaty.

For exam purposes, it is worth remembering that this combination, a prize for a coalition rather than named individuals, for a sustained process rather than one event, and for domestic institution-building rather than international diplomacy, makes the 2015 Peace Prize a useful example of how the Norwegian Nobel Committee has, at times, broadened its understanding of what peace-building work can look like.

Quick facts for exams

The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 went to the National Dialogue Quartet of Tunisia, a coalition of four civil-society organisations: the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers (ONAT).

The award was announced on 9 October 2015 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and presented at the Oslo ceremony on 10 December 2015.

The Quartet received the full prize share for mediating between Tunisia's political parties during the 2013 crisis, helping the country adopt a new constitution on 26 January 2014 and hold free elections later that year, after the 2010 to 2011 Jasmine Revolution had removed President Ben Ali. The prize amount was 8,000,000 Swedish kronor.

Note: Source. The prize facts in this note are from the Nobel Prize's official site, nobelprize.org.

Glossary

• National Dialogue Quartet — the coalition of four Tunisian civil-society organisations awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2015 as a single entity.
• Jasmine Revolution — the 2010 to 2011 uprising in Tunisia that forced out President Ben Ali and began the wider Arab Spring.
• Arab Spring — a wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings across several Middle Eastern and North African countries starting in 2010 to 2011.
• Pluralistic democracy — a political system in which many different parties, groups and beliefs can compete and be represented rather than one group holding all power.
• Constituent Assembly — the elected body in Tunisia responsible for drafting the country's new constitution after the revolution.
• Road map — the agreement drawn up by the Quartet setting out the steps for the government to step down and for elections to follow.
• Technocratic government — a caretaker government made up of experts rather than party politicians, used to run a country temporarily.
• UGTT — the Tunisian General Labour Union, a trade union representing working life and welfare within the Quartet.
• UTICA — the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, representing business interests within the Quartet.
• LTDH — the Tunisian Human Rights League, which brought human-rights principles into the Quartet's dialogue.
• ONAT — the Tunisian Order of Lawyers, which brought legal and rule-of-law expertise into the Quartet's work.
• Mediator — a neutral party that helps opposing sides reach agreement without taking a side itself.
• Norwegian Nobel Committee — the body, based in Oslo, that selects the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize each year.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 was given to an individual Tunisian leader. Correct: It was given to the National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of four organisations, as a single entity.
• Misconception: The four organisations each received a separate prize or medal. Correct: The committee stated clearly that the prize was awarded to the Quartet, not to the four organisations individually.
• Misconception: The Jasmine Revolution and the Arab Spring are two unrelated events. Correct: The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia is generally treated as the starting point of the wider Arab Spring.
• Misconception: The Quartet wrote Tunisia's new constitution itself. Correct: The Constituent Assembly drafted and adopted the constitution; the Quartet mediated the political process that allowed this to happen.
• Misconception: The prize means Tunisia's problems were fully solved by 2015. Correct: The committee explicitly said Tunisia still faced significant political, economic and security challenges after the award.
• Misconception: Only secular parties supported the dialogue. Correct: The committee stressed that Islamist and secular movements worked together within the process.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. In which year was the Nobel Peace Prize 2015 announced? [1 mark]

1. The prize was announced on 9 October 2015.

Q2. Name the four organisations that made up the National Dialogue Quartet. [2 marks]

1. The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers (ONAT).

Q3. Explain what the "road map" agreed by the Quartet required. [4 marks]

1. The road map required the sitting three-party government to give up power and hand over to a non-partisan technocratic government. This caretaker government would run the country until new elections were held. It also required the Constituent Assembly to finish the new constitution by a set deadline and to appoint an independent commission to organise parliamentary and presidential elections in the autumn of 2014. The plan brought all 21 political parties into a single dialogue overseen by the Quartet, with each party given an equal voice regardless of its size, so that no single faction could dominate the outcome.

Q4. Why did the Norwegian Nobel Committee say the Quartet had moral authority to mediate? [4 marks]

1. The committee said the Quartet's four member organisations represented different sectors and values in Tunisian society: working life and welfare through the labour union, business interests through the employers' confederation, human-rights principles through the human rights league, and the rule of law through the lawyers' order. Because no single interest group dominated the Quartet, it could act as a trusted, neutral mediator above party politics. This diversity, the committee said, gave the Quartet the standing needed to bring 21 political parties to the negotiating table and push through a peaceful resolution during the 2013 crisis.

Q5. Discuss the background events in Tunisia that led to the formation of the National Dialogue Quartet. [6 marks]

1. Tunisia's crisis began on 17 December 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, set himself on fire to protest against corruption and misrule. This sparked widespread anger, spread through social media, and led to nationwide protests that forced President Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia within weeks, in what became known as the Jasmine Revolution and the start of the wider Arab Spring. After the revolution, a government led by the Islamist party Ennahda attempted to insert provisions into the new constitution that would have reduced women's existing rights, provoking strong opposition. Political assassinations, the killing of eight Tunisian soldiers by terrorists, and large demonstrations against the government pushed the country towards what the press release called the brink of civil war by the summer of 2013. It was at this critical point that the four organisations joined together to form the National Dialogue Quartet, aiming to create an alternative, peaceful political process rather than letting the crisis escalate into violence.

Q6. State the prize share and residence of the National Dialogue Quartet at the time of the award. [2 marks]

1. The Quartet received the whole prize, a share of 1/1, and its residence at the time of the award was recorded as Tunisia.

Q7. What reasons, beyond the dialogue itself, did the committee give for honouring Tunisia's achievement? [5 marks]

1. The committee pointed to several features of Tunisia's transition. It highlighted cooperation between Islamist and secular political movements during the constitutional process, arguing this proved such groups could work together for the country's benefit. It praised the key role played by women, who led resistance to political violence and to attempts to weaken their constitutional rights. It credited Tunisian politicians and parties with accepting peaceful transfers of power between governments and presidents after 2011, even when this meant stepping down. Finally, it stressed the crucial importance of civil society, noting that when political institutions failed to resolve the crisis, organisations such as the Quartet stepped in to take national responsibility. It also compared the Quartet's broad national dialogue, which countered the spread of violence, to the peace congresses named in Alfred Nobel's will.

Key takeaways

• The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 went to the National Dialogue Quartet of Tunisia, four civil-society organisations acting as one laureate.
• The citation credited the Quartet with building a pluralistic democracy after the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.
• The Quartet formed in summer 2013 when Tunisia was on the brink of civil war.
• Its "road map" pushed the governing parties to step down and hold elections once a new constitution was adopted.
• Tunisia's new constitution, described as the most democratic in the Arab world, was adopted on 26 January 2014 after the Quartet's mediation.
• Parliamentary and presidential elections followed in the autumn of 2014, the ultimate validation of the work done under the Quartet's self-defined mandate, which had already concluded when the caretaker government took over.
• The committee praised cooperation between Islamist and secular movements, women's role, peaceful power transfers and civil society.
• The committee acknowledged that Tunisia still faced major political, economic and security challenges after the award.

Test yourself

Who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2015?

The National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of four Tunisian civil-society organisations, received the whole prize.

What event in December 2010 is seen as the trigger for the Jasmine Revolution?

Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor, set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid on 17 December 2010 in protest against corruption and misrule.

When was the prize announced and when was it presented?

The prize was announced on 9 October 2015 and presented at the award ceremony in Oslo on 10 December 2015.

Name the four member organisations of the Quartet.

UGTT, UTICA, LTDH and ONAT, representing labour, business, human rights and the legal profession respectively.

When was Tunisia's new constitution adopted?

After the Quartet's national dialogue process, Tunisia's new constitution came into force on 26 January 2014.

Why did the committee compare the Quartet's work to Alfred Nobel's peace congresses?

The committee said the Quartet's broad national dialogue countered violence in Tunisia, a function it compared to the peace congresses named in Nobel's will.

What role did women play according to the committee?

Women took the lead in resisting political violence and in opposing constitutional changes that would have reduced their rights.