Nobel Peace Prize for Tunisia mediators

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet for helping the country's transition to democracy.

The Nobel committee said the group of civil society organisations had made a "decisive contribution" to democracy after the 2011 revolution.

It said it helped establish a political process when the country "was on the brink of civil war".

Tunisia's uprising was the first and most successful of the Arab Spring.

While other countries - Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria - either reverted to authoritarian rule or descended into violence and chaos, only Tunisia has managed a successful transition to democracy.

The Tunisian quartet is made up of four organisations: the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League, and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

It was created in 2013, two years after the revolution, when security in the country was threatened following the assassination of two key politicians and deadly clashes between Islamists and secular parts of society.

Nobel committee chairman Kaci Kullman Five said the group was instrumental in enabling Tunisia to establish a constitutional system of government "guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief".

The committee, she said, hoped the prize would "be an inspiration to all those who seek to promote peace and democracy in the Middle East, North Africa and the rest of the world".

The surprise winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize has played a key role in mediating between the different parties in the country's post-Arab Spring government.

The Quartet is credited with creating a national dialogue between the country's Islamist and secular coalition parties amid deepening political and economic crisis in 2013.

Tunisia's revolution - also known as the Jasmine Revolution - began in late 2010 and led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, followed by the country's first free democratic elections last year.

Kaci Kullman Five, the chair of the Nobel peace committee, said the Quartet's role in Tunisia's democratisation was "directly comparable to the peace conferences mentioned by Alfred Nobel in his will".

Houcine Abassi, head of Tunisia's General Labour Union - one of the quartet - said it was a "tribute to martyrs of a democratic Tunisia".

"This effort by our youth has allowed the country to turn the page on dictatorship," he said.

UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi called the quartet "a brilliant example" of civilian society helping to "move peace processes forward".

Tunisians held their first freely contested presidential election last December, which was won by 88-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi of the secular-leaning Nidaa Tounes party.

The BBC's Richard Galpin says Tunisia still has some very serious security problems, particularly from Islamists over the border in Libya.

The country has been rocked by two major terror attacks this year alone - on Tunis's renowned Bardo Museum in March in which 22 people were killed, and on the resort of Sousse in June in which 38 tourists were killed.