Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Ben Ali also played a lead role in the UN's proclaiming 2010 as the International Year of Youth. Ben Ali's government largely bucked the trend toward greater democracy in Africa. It was deemed authoritarian and undemocratic by independent international human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Protection International. They criticised Tunisian officials for not observing international standards of political rights and interfering with the work of local human rights organisations. In "The Economist"s 2010 Democracy Index, Tunisia was classified as an authoritarian regime, ranking 144th out of 167 countries studied. In 2008, in terms of freedom of
Rached Ghannouchi was again released in 1988. He moved to the United Kingdom as a political exile, where he lived for 22 years. He attended The Islamic Committee for Palestine conference in Chicago in 1989. Following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Al-Ghannushi denounced King Fahd of Saudi Arabia for the "colossal crime" of inviting the U.S. to deploy forces. He also called for a Muslim boycott of American goods, planes and ships. He has also been criticized for calling for jihad against Israel. Ghannouchi continued to criticise Tunisian politics and the regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Following popular unrest