18 October Coalition for Rights and Freedoms

The 18 October Coalition for Rights and Freedoms in Tunisia, (French: Collectif du 18 Octobre) was formed when a number of political parties, NGOs and human rights activists advocating various political ideologies, among them Islamists, secularists and communists, came together to campaign against the dictatorship, political misconduct and human rights violations of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime in pre-revolutionary Tunisia. As the head of the Tunisian Journalists Union (SNJT-French: Syndicat National des Journalistes Tunisiens) and human rights activist Lutfi Hajji writes, the coalition “expressed the long- cherished hope of the political and civil forces in the country that by rallying around basic claims, a balance could be reached between the ruling party, which had dominated all aspects of political life for half a century, and the opposition forces which remained disparate and hindered by their internal and external disputes.” The Coalition arose out of a protest, organised by opposition and human rights groups, against the hosting of the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society by Tunisia, in November 2005.

Source: Wikipedia — 18 October Coalition for Rights and Freedoms (CC BY-SA 4.0)