centres of education, training and research, and the organs of information and communication everywhere in the world. 416. Tunisia feels that the time has come to move beyond the double opposition between the East and the West, between the North and the South, and to get rid of the misunderstandings and prejudices which have accumulated on both sides, so that all can recognize the moral and human content which characterizes the civilizations, cultures and religions of all peoples. It is therefore indispensable to strengthen the rapprochement, the communication, the cooperation and solidarity between peoples, in the context of equity and of the treatment on equal terms, far from all ethnic, intellectual, religious or political exclusion, so that the international community can get to the end of its problems, its imbalances and its crises, and preserve its homogeneousness, its evolution and its development. 417. Beyond the tensions, the nostalgia and the excesses observed here and there and some of which are worrisome, the cultural dialogue opens on the requirement of the recognition of sovereignty, the re-stabilizing of the relations between States and civil societies, the establishment of relations of cooperation and of genuine dialogue between nations, of a real new international order based on the intervention of all the actors mindful of imposing nothing, of not suffering anymore but in contributing together to transform the realities and to humanize international relations. 418. The organization in Tunisia, during 1995, of the international Conference on Tolerance in the Mediterranean under the aegis of UNESCO and the Declaration which resulted from it, baptised «Carthage Charter on Tolerance», sanctions Tunisia’s unshakeable commitment to the respect for this value. 419. Similarly, the Chaire Ben Ali for the dialogue of civilizations and religions, created in November 2001, organized several seminars, colloquiums and round tables in contribution to the effort led by Tunisia to promote tolerance and rapprochement between cultures and civilizations. ARTICLE 18 Protection of the Family, of Women, of the Child, of the Elderly and Physically Disabled Persons 420. Article 18 of the Charter stipulates that « the family shall be the natural unit and basis of society », that it « should be protected by the State » (paragraph 1) and that « the State shall ensure the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of the women and the child » (paragraph 3). « The aged and the disabled shall also have the right to special measures of protection in keeping with their physical or moral needs ». I- Protection of the Family 421. In Tunisia, the Personal Status Code promulgated in 1956 laid the foundations of a modern, solid, developed and prosperous family. Prompted by the concern of adapting the legal arsenal to the development of society, the Tunisian legislator promulgated, in line with the 7th November Changes, a series of new legal texts aimed at reinforcing and promoting the right of the family, including notably: 90