Ghassen Ayari 2019 OHCHR Minority Fellow Tunisia Item 1: Human Rights and Minority Language Education Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and public, freely without interference or discrimination of any kind. (Article 2.1 of the Declaration of the Rights of People Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities). Since the revolution of 2011, a country like ours bears a responsibility in relation to the institutionalization of rights and freedoms. A duty that was concretized in a certain way by the constituent assembly during the proclamation of the Second Republic through the Constitution of 2014. In its preambule, as well as in several or its articles, this document guarantees the universal values that solidify Tunisia’s international commitment in relation to individual freedoms and the protection of private life. Historically, Tunisia was a crossroads for numerous peoples from where the deeply-rooted multiculturalism in Tunisia stems from today. It is visible through architecture, gastronomy, and of course, language. Here, I would like to emphasize the importance of the distinction between Tunisian as a dialect, Judeo-Tunisian or Hebrew used by the Tunisian Jewish community, and of course, Amazigh, as the indigenous language of a land with a thousand-year history. However, following nearly 60 years of various attempts, a bad sense of national unity has become the very substance of education in our country, from which a caricature of a “typical Tunisian” or an idealized form of citizenship has taken hold. Therefore, Arabic is proclaimed as the official language of the state, and Islam as the official religion of the state. Thus, all other form of diversity within society is suppressed, including through education. Today, a citizen that speaks Amazigh can face segregation, which is a form of moral violence, just as a Jewish citizen who leaves the invisible walls of the regions known for being inhabited by Jews, can also be subjected to different forms of discrimination. The government must establish an education policy that highlights the presence of religious minorities and the linguistic diversity still present in the country and practiced by different minority groups. This aims to reinforce and evolve the notion of citizenship, and to transmit the values and principles of the constitution and the universal commitments Tunisia has undertaken to future generations. Thank You