The National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT) has expressed strong reservations in the face of the draft revision of article 32 of the personal status code, believing that such an amendment would infringe the fundamental rights of women and family balance.
In a letter addressed to the presidency of the Assembly of People’s Representatives, the Commission of General Legislation and the deputies, the UNFT firmly opposes any reform which would make it possible to institute a divorce outside the judicial framework. “The divorce must remain of the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts,” insists the organization in a statement published Friday evening on its official page.
This exit comes as several legislative initiatives, recently deposited, arouse the concern of defenders of women’s rights. Among them: a bill aimed at granting general amnesty to the debtors of food pensions, as well as the famous revision of article 32, which the UNFT considers a direct threat against the skills torn off from high struggle since the promulgation of the personal status code in 1956.
The organization fears in particular that this reform does not open the way to a privatization of divorce, reducing it to a simple notarial civil contract, to the detriment of the stability of the institution of marriage and the protection of the most vulnerable spouses, in particular women and dependent children.
The UNFT recalls the fundamental role of the conciliator judge, guaranteeing a fair process, based on listening, mediation and impartial evaluation of marital situations. It also highlights the importance of social and technical expertise in the settlement of family disputes.
In its position, the Union calls for strengthening, rather than weakening, the existing legal mechanisms, and warns against any decline in the rights of Tunisian women. In his eyes, current projects are not only intended to unclog the courts, but could ultimately compromise the best interests of the child and family cohesion.
This concern is shared by the National Order of Lawyers in Tunisia, which expressed, on May 9, its categorical opposition to the project to revise the law supervising the profession of notary. This project aims in particular to expand the skills of notaries by allowing them to record divorces by mutual consent, a prerogative hitherto reserved for the courts.
In a letter addressed to the parliamentary authorities, the order denounced a text “contrary to the national interest”, believing that it compromises the foundations of the Tunisian Republic and the achievements of citizenship. The professional organization alerts the social and economic repercussions of such a project, which it considers a threat to the balance of the legal sector.
