Six years after the revolution which put an end to the era of President Ben Ali, Tunisia has had the seventh government in its young democracy since late August of 2016. The political developments in Tunisia since 2011 constitute what is perhaps the most hopeful case among the so-called Arab Springs, and its value as a symbol of the potential for change in Arab societies is enormous. One of the conditions necessary for a successful democratic transition, as established by the Tunisian Constitution of 2014, is a reform of the judicial system. The Tunisian Justice Minister, Ghazi Jeribi, in this position since August 2016, and a person with in-depth knowledge about his country’s judiciary, will be talking to us about this reform, the achievements reached up to now and the difficulties which it is facing.

Ghazi Jeribi (Tunis, 1955) has a university degree in Law from the University of Paris, having specialized in Public Law. He has had ties with the Tunisian judiciary since 1984, first with the Administrative Court, where he held several different positions, including that of First President, from 2007 through 2011. In 2014, he was named the Minister of National Defense and a member of the Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), holding the position of Chairman of the Sub-commission for the Mediterranean Basin. Since 2015, he has been a lawyer at the Court of Cassation. He has had many articles published in domestic and foreign journals and magazines on human rights, public freedoms and transitional justice, as well as other subjects. In 2015, he was decorated with the distinction of the Order of the Republic.