Tunisia considers Judicial Independence

The issue of independence of the judiciary and judicial reform is under discussion throughout North Africa and new measures are being considered in Morocco,Libya,Tunisia and to a lesser extent Egypt and Algeria.The aim is to ensure an independent judiciary which is not under government control so that the citizen can be asssured of a fair trial. This is not an easy task for societies have been used to overall government control.

Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch said in a  statement  that the draft needed to be corrected to protect judges from the danger of arbitary dismissal and that even though this was a temporary bill it should go forward uncorrected. HRW notes however a positive feature of the draft law is that it would restore the right of judges to appeal decisions of the Judicial Council before the Administrative Tribunal.

As the Tunisian daily Le Temps notes, a number of meetings have been devoted to this question including a meeting between President Marzouki,Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali and  Mustapha Ben Jaâfer President of the Constituent Assembly to try to work out a compromise on difficult issues such as the transfer of judges and corruption cases.