July 30, 2014 – Laurentian University congratulates Dr. Yadh Ben Achour on his election to a four-year term to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights. In 2004, Laurentian University awarded Dr. Ben Achour an honourary doctorate in recognition of his work bridging the differences between the Arab and Western Worlds. Dr. Ben Achour is also an Adjunct Professor with the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law (ICIRL) and the Department of Justice at Laurentian University.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is composed of eighteen independent experts who monitor the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Dr. Ben Achour played a key role in Tunisia’s transition to democracy after the Jasmine Revolution in January 2011. He was named to lead a commission charged with the implementation of the first free and transparent elections in Tunisia in October 2011. The newly elected National Constituent Assembly then drafted Tunisia’s new constitution.
Dr. Ben Achour is a strong defender of human rights and the rule of law. In 1992, he resigned from Tunisia’s Constitutional Council and became one of the harshest critics of the regime of Ben Ali. Shortly afterwards, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis, University of Carthage. Since 2013, he has been President of the Administrative Law Court of the African Development Bank. In 2013, he received the International Prize for Democracy from the Fondation Internationaler Demoktratie Preis, Bonn, Germany.