The Left Wing Turn to Human Rights in Tunisia

Bibliographic Data

ID8970683
AuthorsMarc Schade-Poulsen (0009-0008-2698-3240, Roskilde University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume56
Issue1
Pages18-37
Publication date2024-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743824000011
OpenAlexW4393238886
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

This article explores the turn to human rights of Tunisian Maoist activists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many of these Tunisians later became human rights activists. I argue against prevailing views that ideological changes toward human rights in the late 1970s were the result of paradigmatic ideological shifts or the demise of socialist, anti-imperialist thinking, or an outcome of international human rights norm diffusion. Doubt or loss of faith in some or all parts of Marxism-Leninism led to a diversity of ideological transformations that were complex and hybrid. Drawing on interviews with former Tunisian Maoists, as well as on their writings, the article outlines the political and ideological environment in which they operated. It describes their solidarity work for political prisoners and explores their encounter with Amnesty International as well as the Tunisian League for Human Rights in its first years of existence, showcasing how multiple approaches to human rights existed among the activists

Human rights · Left-wing politics · Physics · Political science · Politics · Turn (biochemistry · Wing · Aerospace Engineering · Engineering · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Political and Social Issues

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