Who are the Tunisian ​​national ​​dialogue ​​quartet?

The award of the Nobel peace prize to the Tunisian national dialogue quartet came as a surprise to most of the world’s bookies and punters, who had laid their bets on better known global figures like the pope and Angela Merkel. But the prize follows a Nobel tradition of rewarding underdogs who promote peace away from the headlines, and to give them strength in difficult circumstances by a show of high-profile outside support.

Who are they?

The Tunisian national dialogue quartet is a coalition of civil society groups that came together in the summer of 2013 when Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring, was at a crossroads between democracy and violence. The Islamist party Ennahda and its allies, who had won elections after the Jasmine revolution and the fall of the dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, were filling the state machine with unqualified loyalists and trying to force through a constitution that made Islam the state religion and imposed new limits on free expression and assembly.

Opposition politicians walked out of parliament in protest, and there were clashes on the streets. At the same time in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood government had been deposed in a coup and its supporters were being killed in Cairo. Tunisians feared a similar descent into violence, and those fears were heightened by the appearance of small, extreme Salafist groups.

The long-established workers’ federation, the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), took the lead in creating a civil society alliance and set out looking for partners. Its leader, Houcine Abbassi, took the extraordinary step of convincing the union’s historic adversary, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), to join forces.

Two other well-established and respected groups – the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers – joined as well.

What did they achieve?

The quartet drew up a plan of action, or roadmap, designed to steer Tunisia away from the path to conflict and towards political compromise. It called for the entire cabinet to resign and a non-partisan prime minister to take over, a new independent election commission to be set up, and the constitution to be amended to take into account opposition concerns.

Largely due to the UGTT’s economic clout, Abbassi’s tenacity and the pooled popular legitimacy of the four groups, as well as considerable international support, Ennahda and its allies were persuaded to sign the roadmap at a dramatic ceremony in October 2013, at which success was uncertain until the last moment.

Sarah Chayes, an expert on Tunisia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “They showed that peacemaking takes a lot of effort and a lot of skill. The UGTT and its leader had a huge amount of experience in contract negotiations, as well as a willingness to stay up talking all night, night after night, if necessary.”

What did the Norwegian Nobel committee say about them?

In the words of the citation, the Tunisian national dialogue quartet made a “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine revolution”.

The quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 when the democratisation process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest. It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war.

It was thus instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.