human rights, there is need to quote in particular, the Agreement concluded in
April 2005 between the Tunisian Authorities and the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) authorizing the latter to pay visits to all the penitentiary
units and the custody cells, to take note of the conditions of detention, to audition
the detainees that they chose without the presence of the representative of the
Department concerned and to present their observations and suggestions to the
competent authorities.
The cooperation with the ICRC is also present in the training programmes
destined for the Magistrates, for the members of the Public Prosecutor’s
Department and for the officers of the prison Services as well as for the trainers
from the Ministry of Education and Training.
It is in this same context of cooperation that the creation of a National
Commission of International Humanitarian Law is placed.
V- Guarantee and consolidation of Economic, Social and
Cultural rights
35. The guarantee of the economic, social and cultural human rights through the
gradual integration of the concerns and environmental actions within the
development effort at both the sectorial and territorial levels on the one hand, and
the realization, by means of adequate resources, of a more equitable distribution
of the fruits of economic growth on the other, constitute an unremitting objective
of all the sectorial and regional strategies of economic and social development.
36. Tunisia has carved itself out a path, opting for a global human development
strategy based on the quest for a balance between the economic, social and
political dimensions. Multiple measures of restructuring and liberalization of the
economy had thus been undertaken during the period covered by this Report for
the purpose of promoting a strong income generating economic growth, and the
implementation of daring and fair social policies in order to ensure an equitable
re-distribution of the dividends of growth at the national level.
37. Close to 80% of the national budget is allocated to socio-economic and
cultural rights, namely education, health, housing, food, social security,
professional training, employment and cultural activities. Tunisia is, in effect, a
country where 80% of the population constitutes part of the middle class, 80% of
Tunisian families own their housing, more than 99% of the children attend school,
where the rate of poverty is reduced to less then 4%, where salary increases had
been effected throughout the last 15 years, where economic growth is higher than
5% and where the per capita income has increased: it was 952 Dinars in 1986,
2,444 Dinars in 1998, and 3,555 Dinars in 2004.
38. Tunisia has been listed in the Human Development Reports of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) among the group of countries which
guarantee a harmonious human development for their citizens, taking into
account both the quantitative and qualitative criteria, namely, education,
employment, social security, health, shelter and food on the one hand, and liberty
and democracy in all its aspects, on the other. And it is through social democracy,
through the conquest of new rights, through the promotion of solidarity that
Tunisia is laying the foundations of a world of human fulfilment, that of justice, of
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