To measure the progress on the implementation of the Tunisian Constitution, DRI publishes a six-monthly constitutional monitor that assesses developments in the following areas: human rights, with a focus on civil and political rights, separation and balance of powers, independence of the judiciary, rule of law, accountability and transparency mechanisms, Independent Constitutional Bodies, and decentralisation.
The ninth edition of the report assesses the status of the implementation of the Constitution as at 30 September 2019.
The Assembly of the Representatives of the People (Assemblée des représentants du peuple; ARP) elected in October 2014 has since adopted around 20 laws that can be linked to direct implementation of the Constitution.The most important measure of implementation that took place from 1 April 2019 to 30 September 2019 was the publication of the Act on the Independent Constitutional Body for Sustainable Development and the Rights of Future Generations in July 2019.
Parts of the Constitution are still awaiting implementation, a task that will be completed by the newly elected ARP:
- As a first step, all constitutional institutions will need to be put in place. The 2014-2019 legislative term was marked by the failure of the ARP to appoint the members of the Constitutional Court and the members of the three independent Constitutional Bodies created during this period. As at 30 September 2019, of the seven core institutions enshrined in the 2014 Constitution, only two are established and functioning, namely: the Independent High Authority for Elections (Instance supérieure indépendante pour les élections - ISIE) and the Supreme Judicial Council (Conseil supérieur de la magistrature - CSM). This represents a significant delay in the implementation of the Constitution, leaving the institutional architecture unfinished almost six years after the adoption of the Constitution.
- Secondly, texts will have to be adopted in order to reform the existing legal framework and correct the remaining unconstitutionalities, for exmaple the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Demonstration, which is governed by a law dating from 1969, and the state of emergency, which is regulated by a decree dating from 1978.
- Thirdly, pursuant to article 65 of the Constitution, it will be necessary to organize certain rights and freedoms, which are currently governed by decree-laws adopted in 2011, in the form of an organic law, while strengthening the guarantees provided for in these decree-laws.
