Amna Guellali ( ar, آمنة القلالي; born 14 November 1972) is a jurist and Libyan-Tunisian

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

activist.

Biography

She was born on 14 November 1972 in

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwest of Libya o ...

, the only daughter of a Tunisian mother and a

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

n father. When she was eight her parents escaped from the dictatorial rule of

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

. They left Libya and settled in Tunisia. Guellali then continued her studies in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. After high school she entered university and finally obtained a degree in law from the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis. She then prepared a DEA (

Master of Advanced Studies A Master of Advanced Studies or Master of Advanced Study (MAS, M.A.S., or MASt) is a postgraduate degree awarded in various countries. Master of Advanced Studies programs may be non-consecutive programs tailored for "specific groups of working pro ...

) of public international law under the direction of Slim Laghmani. After she had finished her studies, Guellali was employed by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

. She then worked for two years in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

for the

International Development Law Organization The International Development Law Organization (IDLO) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law. With a joint focus on the promotion of rule of law and development, it works to empower people and communiti ...

. She then resumed her studies at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...

Fiesole Fiesole () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times. Sin ...

and obtained her doctorate in 2008. She prepared her thesis under the direction of

Pierre-Marie Dupuy Pierre-Marie Dupuy (born October 5, 1946 in Paris) is a French jurist. Since 1981 he is a law professor at Panthéon-Assas University, of which he is on leave since 2000. From 2000 to 2008 he was Professor of International Law at the European Univ ...

and Slim Laghmani, about The

International Law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

Between Humanization and Criminalization. This thesis was published in 2015 by the Éditions universitaires européens. She then joined

T.M.C. Asser Instituut The T.M.C. Asser Instituut (or ''Asser Institute'') is a professional inter-university centre of knowledge and research. The institute carries out research in private and public international law, European law, as well as all other related fields, ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, then the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...

in the same city as an analyst at the

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

's office. When the

Tunisian revolution The Tunisian Revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution, was an intensive 28-day campaign of civil resistance. It included a series of street demonstrations which took place in Tunisia, and led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El ...

broke out in 2011, she decided to return to her adopted country to participate in its evolution. She opened the

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

office in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. In this way she made inquiries on many cases of

, for example, the assassination of

Chokri Belaid Chokri Belaïd ( ar, شكري بلعيد, Shukrī Bil‘īd; 26 November 1964 – 6 February 2013), also transliterated as Shokri Belaïd, was a Tunisian politician and lawyer who was an opposition leader with the left-secular Democratic Pa ...

in February 2013 and the environment of agitation of hatred and violence. ,the continual convictions of blogger Yassine Ayari by military courts in 2014 and 2015, etc. She also has been active in necessary developments such as equality for women in

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, Title (property), titles, debts, entitlements, Privilege (law), privileges, rights, and Law of obligations, obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ ...

. At different times, she has been under pressure for her activities. For example, in August 2013, she was detained for several hours then released, as part of her investigations on cases of terrorism and political assassinations.

Awards

Amna Guellal was among the Tunisian delegation who won the

2015 Nobel Peace Prize The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (founded in 2013) for "its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011". The National ...

. Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet awarded Nobel Peace Prize
/ref> In 2017, she was awarded the annual prize of the organization POMED (

Project on Middle East Democracy A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guellali, Amna 1972 births Living people

Jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

Human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

Tunisian women activists Libyan women activists