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
Timeline of the Yemeni Revolution (January – 2 June 2011) Yemenis protested in Sana'a's streets since mid-January 2011 to demand a change in government, though the protests in the south of the country were more aggressive. The protests "appeared to be the first large-scale challenge" to Saleh's rule; protesters compared him to the ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, citing government corruption and the poor economy of Yemen. Protests occurred in many towns in both the north and south of Yemen initially against Yemeni governmental proposals to modify Yemen's constitution, rejecting the proposals as insufficient, and over unemployment and economic conditions. Protests on 20 January included thousands of