Rechtskulturen
2013/ 2014

Maaike Voorhoeve

Constitutional Debates in Post-revolutionary Tunisia: Identity Construction and the Position of International Human Rights Law

Maaike Voorhoeve completed her PhD at the University of Amsterdam, examining Tunisian judicial practices in the field of divorce (2011). She recently completed a visiting fellowship at Harvard University, focusing on the symbolical and practical meanings of Tunisia’s constitutional reference to religion. Her research interests are the socio-legal implications of the Tunisian ‘revolution’, including the constitution, transitional justice, women’s rights, and political justice. Maaike Voorhoeve spent a total of 2 years in Tunisia for fieldwork.

Constitutional Debates in Post-revolutionary Tunisia: Identity Construction and the Position of International Human Rights Law

Maaike Voorhoeve’s project as a Rechtskulturen Fellow, “Constitutional debates in post-revolutionary Tunisia: Identity construction and the position of international human rights law”, examines the construction of a new identity for post-revolutionary Tunisia from the angle of human rights. Constitutional debates on the position of human rights show that the revolution of 2011 was characterized by many Tunisians as getting rid not only of Ben Ali’s authoritarianism, but also of Western post-colonialism. By highlighting this aspect of the transition, the study breaks away from the current tendency in academia which reduces the transitional dynamics in the region to the field of religion.