COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCLUDES ITS CONSIDERATION OF THE REPORT OF TUNISIA

MORNING
HR/ESC/99/20
7 May 1999



The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon concluded its consideration of the initial report presented by the Government of Tunisia on how that country was implementing the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Observations and recommendations on the Tunisian report will be issued by the Committee towards the end of its three-week session which concludes on 14 May.

In the course of the discussion, the Tunisian delegation told the Committee that Tunisia had invested much to improve its educational and training facilities in order to increase the number of students who wished to pursue their studies at university level.

Members of the Committee queried the delegation on issues pertaining to the status of children born out of wedlock; domestic violence; the HIV-AIDS virus; the rural illiteracy rate; higher learning; and the situation of the elderly and disabled persons, among other things.

The 8-member Tunisian delegation was led by Kamel Morjane, Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Office at Geneva. It consisted of representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economic Development, Social Affairs, Women and Family, and other institutions related to education.

As one of the 139 State parties to the Covenant, Tunisia must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the measures taken to implement the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will hear briefings by representatives of the Research Rights Development Branch (RRDB) of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). It is also expected to hold a private meeting to adopt its concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Iceland.

Discussion

In response to questions raised by the Committee's experts on Thursday, the members of the delegation said that freedom to work and the right not to work were respected in Tunisia, including in prisons. The work performed by detainees in prisons was done on a voluntary basis at the wishes of the prisoners to obtain vocational training. Most of the work done in prisons was manual and agricultural if it was performed off prison locations. However, prisoners had to obey orders coming from the prison officials while carrying out this work. In addition, instead of going to prison, a sanction to do community service could be imposed on certain persons, which did not constitute forced labour by itself.

Regarding the question of old-age and disability, the delegation said that the country's legal system had protective and promotional clauses concerning those two categories of the population. An old-age pension was guaranteed for all workers having fulfilled the age conditions which was normally 60 years and the conditions concerning the minimum period of contribution. The October 1994 legislation was also aimed at protecting elderly people within and outside the family by providing assistance. A mobile assistance programme to families where elderly people lived had been carried out. A disability pension was also granted to insured persons who lost their capacity to work at an age below that of retirement. In addition, the Government had been carrying out preventive programmes on disability, including home and road accidents.

Asked about the status of children born of out of wedlock, the delegation said that like in all other Islamic countries, the personal status code of Tunisia was based on Islamic laws, while incorporating legislative innovations made necessary by experience and changes in mentality. Any child should have a legal relationship not only with the mother but also with the father. The child had the right to establish paternal descent, but it was not always easy to prove except if recourse was made to a DNA test. The father's acknowledgement or corroborative evidence was necessary for a child to bear the father's name. Generally, the birth of a child should be proved through the existence of a marriage between the parents. Children born out of wedlock were entitled to inheritance if they were recognized by the parent in question.

On the issue of domestic violence, the delegation said that domestic violence in Tunisian society occurred only on a very small scale. Conjugal and domestic violence accounted for only a minute proportion of all the cases dealt with annually by the advice and guidance unit of the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs. However, several measures had been taken by the authorities to combat violence, whatever its source.

The situation of HIV/AIDS was another issue that drew the attention of the Committee's experts who asked the delegation to brief them about the measures undertaken by the Government to combat the virus. The delegation said there were 67 new cases of HIV/AIDS recorded in 1998, bringing the total cases of HIV/AIDS to 950 out of which 389 had already died. It said 456 were HIV-positive. In order to raise public awareness on the issue, the Government had been carrying out anti-AIDS preventive campaigns throughout the country in collaboration with UNAIDS. Since the emergence of the AIDS problem, Tunisia had been engaged in fighting it through its health policy.

With regard to the eradication of illiteracy, the delegation said that since 1991, the Government had been implementing programmes aimed at lowering the rate of illiteracy, particularly in the rural areas where the majority of illiterate citizens were living. Since then, the rate of illiteracy in the rural regions had gone down to 17 per cent from 30 per cent at the beginning of the programme.

The delegation told the Committee members that Tunisia had invested much to improve its educational and training facilities in order to increase the number of students who wished to pursue their studies at university level. The country's six universities were at the centre of the country's plan for educational development and future expansion of higher learning. That was also a means of democratization of higher level learning to all. At the lower level, the school attendance rate for children aged from 6 to 14 had risen sharply for both girls and boys. During the last ten years, there had been a sharp falling off in the number of drop-outs thanks to the introduction of compulsory education and various pedagogical measures designed to improve the internal efficiency of the education system.

In addition, the delegation said that human rights teachings had been incorporated in the country's educational system. At the university level, human rights subjects were developed in most of the faculties, particularly in law, literature, sociology, philosophy, history and political science. Special diploma courses on civic action were also organized specializing in issues pertaining to human rights causes. Moreover, human rights teachings had been incorporated in the curricula and textbooks at every stage of education.

An expert asked the Tunisian delegation if the practice of adultery could lead to killings or burnings of wives by husbands or relatives. Referring to a television programme shown last night, an expert said that in some Islamic countries, husbands or relatives used to kill or to burn wives on the pretext of adultery. The delegation said that in Tunisia, cases of
adultery were resolved by courts and the individual had no right to take revenge against his wife on the suspicion of committing adultery. In addition, the Koran was open and tolerant on that issue. Any sexual adultery should be proved by four witnesses whose testimony should be identical. This was almost impossible.