captioning performed by vitac >> translator: the picture or the image we are trying to build for the country is not the only segment of the tunisian society that pushes strongly in that direction. i give you one simple example.

today's minister of interior is a person that was sentenced to death twice but he's still alive. he was sentenced to death twice. he also was -- prison things. so he would go, he would be taken to make him feel that he would be executed and back and forth. i don't know. he spent 17 years. i don't know how much of it was in solitary confinement. he believe that he is a minister now. do you think as i said before he will not extract from what international agreements that will prohibit violation of the human rights and torture?

the son of this minister stated on the day he was appointed as i told you, he's a minister now and he was in prison and he was tortured under the minister of interior. when his son said don't go downstairs, go upwards because these cellars were torture chambers under them. he will not do that. from the principles of humanity embodied in islamic religion respects all values that we

aspire to build tunisia that will respect all tunisian citizens and all citizens. >> what i hear is when we make law, we will draw from the the international human rights documents but it will not be ought nat mathically icallicai automatically effective, it would have to go through parliament. did i hear correctly? >> translator: all international agreements will be passed through this parliament representing the people to be approved on. so the people and their representatives are the ones who

approve. they troos from the values they feel have something in common to all of the mechanisms of humanity to select the principles they feel are suitable. >> is it the position of the libyan muslim brotherhood or have they developed one from human rights instruments? >> translator: it's an early question to pose to the islamic brotherhood. we haven't reached that stage yet but we have principles that i can refer to. and as my brother said here, it's the islamic reference and

universal human rights conventions that do not conflict with the islam ic shariah or th culture of the libyans. i would like to point out there are some things that the westerners interpret based on their own world view. surely there are some minor differences related to culture and tradition among nations. for example yesterday i noticed that there's a difference between the american people and the british people. the americans say hi, how are you when they see you. in britain, this is not the case. they say good morning but the culture of people is that people are to themselves. in libya people would even try

to offer help. this is the difference. i mean, this relates to the culture of muslims and arabs and there are difference from western culture. we should not forget this. we have the shariah, we have universal human rights conventions and these conventions are not different from the islamic understanding of human rights. when i took refuge in britain and i was being interrogated, i was asked by an interrogator who doesn't believe what i was saying, that something -- but perhaps when we are talking to our egyptian people, they will think it a very simple issue. people are being killed by the hundreds and that was accepted. therefore the difference in cult affects no doubts the details and the forms --

>> the muslim brotherhood didn't have details proposals. my response is usually you haven't read their documents, they go on for page after page, hundreds of pages sometimes. but among those in the party's recent platform, would qualify directly for a review of certified documents. what is the party to engender when it comes to international human rights instruments? >> translator: it is a good question. always a good question. the previous regime, all international treaties and i don't think they -- i don't think these agreements agree. particularly, the human rights ones. it's interesting. they sign it on one end and human right watch on the other end would prove them wrong. so this distungs is actually

real. so there is a form where you actually do an implementation on one level, signing an agreement and declaration and the question of actual implementation of these things and i think this is the sentiment that you talk about so many good things and you agree with our freedoms, would you actually do had? this is an element where we actually need to find a process where we trust -- start building trust between each other and actually try to help each other. this is the world view we would like to live in after our region is brought into democracy and brought into rule of law. we actually need your help in doing this. but part of the difference is maybe an agreement with some of the cultures is we actually have an internal mechanism to make sure that these rights are

actually respected. this is part of the difference. what islam fits in the individual relationship between the person and his lord. basically you have an instrument here that you make sure you're not only implementing because of the rule of law or the agreement but is actually a part of your belief and understanding. you have to do it at an individual level. the previous regime exercised a practice that broke this and changed these countries. this is why when you visit our colonized either mentally or intellectually or destroyed societies, you will find lots of practices and you hear incidents across the region in violation of human rights, women's rights.

oppression breeds these kind of practices. it's not religion. religion breeds love, breeds protection of one another, breeds interaction and collaboration of one another. i lived in canada for a few years. the level of dialogue and getting to know of the conservative communities was one of the most pleasant experiences one has. we have lots of common grounds, particularly with faith-based organizations and faith-based communities, et cetera, there are lots of common grounds between us and actually we want to use the treaties and the agreement to ensure the commitment on the political level. we want civic society, and we want to empower civic society as a means of checks and balances to make sure that we don't go beyond these agreements and commitments. and we want our religion, our islam to play also this role in

making sure we protect our rights and we don't call them minorities rights of egyptian citizens to be equal in front of law, to be equal citizens and to exercise and live in a respectable, dignified life. >> again, a pointed follow-up question. are there any of those agreements that the old regime signed, even if it signed insincerely or dishonestly that you want to remove egypt's signature from? >> good thing you followed with this again. the first part of it is, you know, all people, particularly in this transition phase have the right to review all agreements. all agreements were written in a context that was not democratic or representative. so it is an inherent right for the egyptian people, all agreements are this. we made a commitment as a party

that we are going to honor or commitment to all previous written agreements and there is no disagreement between -- there is a right there but our position as a political party that egypt needs stability, the party that we want to be international community, our position is that we want to be a our identity and respects our tradition but also as a member of the global community. >> let's turn it over for questions. we've got about 15 minutes left for questions and we probably have looks like three hours' worth of question. i'm going to go to the back of the room because i don't want those people to be discriminated against. let's go way back there. hair harder to see up here. i don't want them to be forgotten. let's take about three questions. can you identify yourself, please? >> i'm name is ahmad.

i'm a student. i'm a member of the party, though planning to revoke my membership once i go back after the latest presidential nomination. my question is regarding this whole dilemma about implementing shariah back in egypt, my question to you, sir, is why all this hassle about this simple issue? it's actually a yes or no answer because implementing shariah has some sort of commitment from your side as a party to deliver economic prosperity and sustainable modes of living, to be able to implement the corporate punishment. so let me put this one in

arabic -- [ speaking arabic ] >> translator: -- responsive to the people and the country. >> right back there. >> my name is ann. i'm also a student here in washington, international

relations. i have a question for the representative of tunisia. you said you would go along with human rights treaties as long as they confirm with the islamic identity of tunisia. from your point of view could you give me some examples of human rights treaties or specific law that don't go along with an arabic-islamic identity? >> here. >> i'm with nbc television. my question is for osama al-saghir. tunisia, which has the most progressive record when it comes to family law and women that, this might be a reverse.

can you assure this is not going to be the case. >> i said three questions. we're going to get one more because the person who worked hardest was maroon a otaway and she put me up here. so i owe her. >> thank you very much. we have all of these questions so far. i'd like to ask what is going to be the hottest constitutional issue in the writing of the

constitution? what are the institutional issues that will be most difficult to get consensus? >> with the gentleman from egypt, i'm not sure he's yet an ex-member of the party, i don't think he wants me to convince him back now but we'll have a later discussion with collecting word from the u.s. the short answer is yes, our primary concern and primary commitment is the welfare of the people. this is what our economic program is focused on and our primary concern and why we were voted in the parliament. and the no part in my answer is

also we are not achieving prosperity to cut people's heads. we are achieving prosperity to actually not cut people's hands. we are achieving prosperity in order to have a stable society where everybody exercises citizenship and citizenship rights. and with the question about when we are in power, it's a dead end, actually our primary -- the immediate needs of the egyptian people, and this is the process we're in now, we are committed and we are trying to put in our parliamentary and legislative program and our contribution to the constitution all the checks and balances to make sure that dictatorship does not come back, that we don't reinstate the previous regime and the previous system. so we are actually trying to do so. and this is the number one one reason of why we pushed our

candidate is because he's our guarantee. most of the previous ones are not necessarily committed to a parliamentary system or a system with limited you a thority. the two most debated -- actually, most of the constitution we believe particularly in you look at the 1971 version of the constitution, the first four chapters is almost consensus focusing on right and identity, no disagreement about. only just some mechanics and language to make it more efficient.

the other discussion is the role of the military within the state and within the constitution. >> translator: thank you for these questions and several of them are what we discuss on a daily basis within these committees. with respect to the status of women, we have six committees designed to write the constitution and not party heads or chairs to these committees. and each of these committees has 22 members representing all parties according to their -- to the election results and some of them are also independent without any clear orientation. and some have been elected to the constituent assembly just to deal with human rights issues. each of these six committees is

represented in such a manner that all the members of the political spectrum are represented. and such that they would -- for example, we have a committee for rights headed by a woman and she was a member of another party who has struggled and who has also proven over the years a kind of real defense of all the men and women who suffered under the yoke of the dictatorship and that's why another party nominated her to chair this committee because of her long history and struggle and therefore she's not just defending the rights of women but all parties. and i believe that in a future

stage we should overcome in obstacle that some -- that human right are restricted to this party or that party or that women cannot have such rights in a political life that i'm living inside the party. i don't feel that my female colleagues are not equally represented in all positions. elections are taking place. as asaid, 43 out of 89 members are women and this was not the choice of the party. these were voted or elected by the people and 5% of the women present on that constituent assembly are from another party. therefore when the islamic movement was given the opportunity to present its

programs in all fields, whether human rights or any other field, it proved that it able to -- and to produce a democracy in which women are represented not through quota system but women themselves are taking part and building their own political future. we address all issues, human rights issues are real issues and the people who lived under dictatorship have experienced. and we will not allow for our future state to revert back to torture and human rights violations.

and any other such issues. we found these issues to be present in the tunisan people. but what we're happy about is none of these differences are divisive th tunisian people. this is hough we can develop a balanced system. i wand to talk about what we talk about inside the committee. it's not just for the purpose of evading the other issues, but

the shariah issue is only -- there's one committee concerned with this issue and the other committees discuss all the various issue. and that's what i was trying to focus on. there's one other important issue and that is that 66 committees focus on public groups. for example, as my colleague here mentioned that in libya there are marginalized groups that don't get the attention of a minister or minister or any public official. we cannot write the constitution on now we have a special committee that is scheduling the idea way to allow the opportunity to have some type of balance between all party. and we are not trying, for example, to weaken the groups that are some point use to been

fit to the spag allowed to usnd the previous regime. because for 20 years they were active and now we tried to marginalize them. we want a constitution at that defends and protects all party and in a very balanced way. soho do we akeefe that? we're still in discussion over this. another issue being discussed is the constitutional authorities. for example, the constitutional court that would be a defender of this constitution, we don't have such a constitutional court in tunis and ben ali changed the constitution at whim and he allowed to be reelected over and over again and we need a

constitution that will protect these rights. this is the subject of discussion and we're trying to benefit from experiences in the west. all of these issues, they're not causing serious deferences. there are minor differences with respect to points of view and these are the kind of differences that the constituent assembly -- [ speaking arabic ] >> translator: these are the main topics that are being presented on the social media and among the people and other groups.

it's the marginalization of libya that led to the failure and left many of these regions behind. because of the states and civilization, there are other regions were really deprived and poverty -- you have 2,000 kilometers along the beach, along the coastline do not even have a beach front where they can go and enjoy a day with their family because lack of focus on development and these different rural areas of course caused displeasure among the people. so this is attracting lots of debate to achieve the proper justice. people avoid discussing these

points because of its sensitively. as so it really helped foster animosities between the different groups. so they would be willing to take initiatives and prove to the people that they can address -- if they are violators. this is one of the other top, are being discussed now. unfortunately some now take place and these aren't being debated. it's not a secret.