A/HRC/40/58/Add.1 courts, and the proclamation of the Constitution of 1959, which re-iterated the commitment to equal citizenship, regardless of religious affiliation. 13. The pre-Revolutionary governments of President Habib Bourguiba and President Zine-el-abidine Ben Ali also promoted secular policy objectives, paying particular attention to the promotion of protections for certain aspects of women’s human rights. Tunisia, for example, is the only country in the Arab world to prohibit polygamy. President Ben Ali created the State Secretariat for Women and Family’s affair in 1992, and it became the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood and the Elderly in 2004. Its mandate has been to “coordinate and develop government policy for women’s promotion”. The ministry had local branches in all of Tunisia’s 24 regions until at least 2010. These branches aimed to “reinforce women’s participation in public, political and socio-economic life at the sub-national level”. The 1957 Personal Status Code, while providing a unified civil code for all Tunisians, however, still retains aspects of Islamic Law, which undermine the country’s commitment to protecting the human rights of women and promoting gender equality. 14. Today, Tunisia is a country in transition and has faced myriad challenges since the departure of President Ben Ali on 14 January 2011, which was prompted by widespread public protests that began on 17 December 2010, demanding civil, political, economic and social rights. These include economic challenges; terrorism and issues involving violent extremism; difficulties with establishing key institutions mandated by the Constitution; struggles with advancing initiatives that facilitate review and repeal of laws which violate newly established Constitutional standards and the country’s renewed commitment to international human rights obligations; and uncertainty about the future of the country’s transitional justice process. 15. Despite these difficulties, the country has maintained a progressive trajectory towards its objective for democratic consolidation. Tunisia's first free elections since independence in 1956 were held on 23 October 2011, for example, wherein voters selected members of an assembly charged with drafting the country’s new constitution and establishing the procedures for parliamentary and presidential elections. A new Constitutional settlement was reached on 26 January 2014, followed by parliamentary elections in October 2014, presidential elections in November and December 2014 and municipal elections in May 2018. 16. President Beji Caid Essebsi was elected to office after winning the country’s first democratic presidential elections. Nida Tounes won a plurality of seats in the parliament and formed a coalition with the Ennahda Party and several smaller parties. In February 2015, 166 members of the 217-member parliament adopted a unity government to be led by the Nida Tunis Party under Chief of Government Habib Essid. In August 2016, Chief of Government Essid was replaced by Chief of Government Youssef Chahed (Nida Tounis Party), after parliament removed Habib Essid with a vote of no-confidence resulting from negative views of his handling of economic reforms and security challenges in the country. Chief of Government Chahed's new government is backed by a broad coalition of secular, Islamist and leftist parties, independents and trade union allies which he hopes can deliver on economic reforms. Chief of Government Chahed will serve as the seventh Chief of Government in less than six years since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. 17. Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine alAbidine Ben Ali was ousted. More than a third of the young people in Tunisia are without work. One of the country’s key industries, tourism, has also been struggling since two terrorist attacks on foreign tourists were carried out in 2015, although interlocutors were optimistic about improving numbers for the sector as of late. Strikes and protests over jobs have likewise negatively impacted the country's important phosphate industry. Chief of Government Chahed warned that austerity programs (with deep cuts for thousands of public sector jobs and increased taxes) are inevitable if Tunisia does not overcome its pressing economic difficulties. 18. One of the key challenges facing the Government’s effort to strengthen the economy and secure public safety has been that of countering violent extremism and terrorism. In November 2018, a young woman blew herself up in a public space, in what has widely been viewed as an act motivated by despair over economic deprivation. Moreover, terroristic 4