The adoption of Tunisia’s new constitution should set in motion a wide-ranging overhaul of laws and public institutions, Al Bawsala, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today. The constitution, which guarantees many fundamental rights and freedoms, should be implemented in a way that will provide the highest degree of protection of Tunisians’ human rights.

Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new Constitution that legislators across the political spectrum, human rights organizations and constitutional experts are hailing as a triumph of consensus politics. Two years in the making and now in its third draft, the charter is a carefully worded blend of ideas that has won the support of both Ennahda, the Islamist party that leads the interim government, and the secular opposition. It is being hailed as one of the most liberal constitutions in an Arab nation.