International

‘Tunisia is continuing to build peacefully on its revolution. On 24th July the Tunisian people will go to the polling booths for their very first free elections. But the war in Libya threatens the progress made in Tunisia. Large numbers of refugees, little trade and falling tourism mean that the economy is in a wretched state. And that also carries political risks.’ This was how SP Senator Tiny Kox, president of the United European Left in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) summarised the situation in Tunisia. As part of a Council of Europe delegation which included the heads of each of the PACE political groups, Kox this week visited the country where in January the Arab Spring began with the forcing out of the dictator Ben Ali after twenty-three years of rule.

The government’s plan to tie the hands of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can now, thanks to an overwhelming vote in the Senate, be binned. A huge majority of Senators voted to express the view that Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal had presented no argument that could possibly persuade them to approve his plan to interfere in the jurisdiction of Europe’s highest court. SP Senator Tiny Kox describes himself as ‘delighted’ by the vote. “The Senate has taken a firm stand in favour of the unique protection afforded to all Europeans on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights and the fact that they can go to the ECHR in Strasbourg to enforce these rights. The government should be ashamed of itself.”