Hassib Ben Ammar

Hassib Ben Ammar (حسيب بن عمار; 11 April 1924 – 15 December 2008) was a leading Tunisian politician and journalist/editor.

He was a powerful campaigner for human rights.

As a young man he participated actively in the Tunisian independence struggle, notably as the producer of the clandestine newspaper "El Hilal".

Following national independence, in 1961 he was appointed to preside over the "National office of Mines".

On 2 February 1961 he took part in the Constitutional Congress in Tunisia's newly established Chamber of Commerce: the 24 member steering committee elected Ben Ammar as their first president.

Ben Ammar served as the mayor of Tunis between 1963 and 1969.

Subsequently he occupied a succession of senior positions in public life: he was head of the youth wing of the Socialist Destourian Party, and was governor of the Tunis governate (province) from July 1965 till September 1969.

In 1967, at a time when he was himself combining the duties of provincial governor and city mayor, he founded the Association for the care of the Medina in Tunis (Association de sauvegarde de la médina de Tunis), serving as the association's president till 1969.

Grand Officer of the Tunisian Order of Independence (1968)

Ben Ammar was provisionally appointed Tunisian Ambassador to Italy following a dispute with Ahmed Ben Salah on the subject of Cooperatives, before being appointed director of the Socialist Destourian Party, a post he held between 27 September 1969 and 23 June 1970.

He became the Minister for National Defence in June 1970, in succession to Beji Caid Essebsi.

Excluded from the PSD during the 1970s, Hassib Ben Ammar resigned from his political posts in order to participate with Ahmed Mestiri in building the nascent opposition movement emerging from the Movement of Socialist Democrats (MDS / Mouvement des démocrates socialistes ).

However, he remained in this post only till October 1971, which was when he resigned in response to the refusal of President Bourguiba to democratize the Socialist Destourian Party (PSD / Parti socialiste destourien ): he was replaced at the Defence ministry by.

In 1977, he was also a co-founder of the Tunisian Human Rights League, becoming an honorary president of this association.

He was also president of the "Committee of Freedoms" (sometimes known as the "National Council for Public Freedoms" ) which originated as a demand for respect of civil liberties, and for a conference on freedoms and human rights.

The demand was signed by 528 intellectuals (university teachers, doctors, lawyers etc.) and distributed in April 1977.

Ben Ammar undertook an overseas tour to invite foreign Human Rights organisations to participate.

The conference itself, despite being forbidden, eventually took place on 9 June 1977.

It took place not in the Hotel Africa as planned, but in the main concourse of Tunis–Carthage International Airport.

One high-profile participant was United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark