Souhayr Belhassen

show This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (January 2011) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Souhayr Belhassen]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Souhayr Belhassen}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Souhayr Belhassen
Souhayr Belhassen in a demonstration for human rights 2008
University of Tunisia
Personal details
Born	19 June 1943 Gabès, Tunisia
Nationality	Tunisian
Profession	Journalist

Souhayr Belhassen (born 1943 Gabès, Tunisia) is a Tunisian human rights activist and journalist. She has served as the President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) based in Paris since April 26, 2007.^[1] Belhassen is a vocal critic of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted during the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests, calling the former government's crackdown on protesters "a massacre."^[2]

Souhayr Belhassen also participated in the writing of Habib Bourguiba. Biography in two volumes (co-written with Sophie Bessis) a biography of president Habib Bourguiba. ^[3]

She worked as a journalist for about twenty years. From late 1970s, she also worked as à correspondent in Tunisia, for the weekly Jeune Afrique and Reuters News Agency. . ^[4] She was also very active in the fight for the defense of human rights in her country, by joining in 1984 the Tunisian Human Rights League, founded in 1977. In November 2002 she took over the organisation as vice-president. ^[5]

Born of a Tunisian parents in Indonesia, she is the granddaughter of Hachemi Elmekki, journalist and founder of nationalist satirical newspapers written in Tunisian Arabic.She graduated in law from the University of Tunis and then from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

In 2004, she joined the board of directors of the International Federation for Human Rights. She was elected on April 24, 2007 at the head of this NGO, replacing the Senegalese Sidiki Kaba who supported her.

Awards[]

• In 2011, she was awarded the North–South Prize.
• On 30 April, 2011 Sohayer Belhassen obtained the "Takreem Arab Woman of the Year" The awards was presented to her at the Katara (cultural village) in Qatar. ^[6]

References[]

External links[]

• Interview with Souhayr Belhassen (French)]