Pr Yadh Ben Achour was born on June1 , 1945 in La Marsa, into a literate family from the historic Zaytouna University in Tunis. He studied law between 1964 and 1969 in Tunis, then in Paris. In 1974, he obtained his doctorate in public law under the supervision of Professor Georges Burdeau. Since then, he has pursued an academic career, serving as Dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences at Carthage University between 1993 and 1999. During his academic career, he specialized in domestic and international public law and Islamic political theory. Appointed to the Tunisian Constitutional Council in 1988, he resigned in 1992 to protest against the authorities' attempt to liquidate the Tunisian League for Human Rights, through a reform of the law on associations. After the Revolution, he was appointed President of the High Authority for the Realization of the Revolution's Objectives, whose main mission was to liberalize the political system and prepare for elections to the National Constituent Assembly. He is currently a member of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts.
Yadh Ben Achour is also :
- Member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee
- Honorary doctorate from Laurentian University, Canada, November 6, 2004
- Honorary doctorate, University of Geneva, 2017
- Honorary doctorate, University of Aix-Mareille, 2018
- Averroès Chair, Institut méditerranéen d'études et de recherches avancées IMERA, Sept. 2018-July 2019
- Holder of the International Democracy Prize, " Fondation Internationaler Demoktratie Preis ", Bonn, September 2012
- Chevalier of the Order of the Republic, July 1990
- Commander of the Order of the Republic, November 2011
- Recipient of the mérite éducatif, July 1991
- Recipient of the Mérite national, September 2018