Tunisian Human Rights Victims Give Public Testimonies

Tunisian victims of human rights abuse are telling their stories to the public. Televised testimonies of citizens who have suffered under Tunisia’s past authoritarian leadership aired on November 17. The testimonies began with a mother of a protester killed by security forces in 2011, Ourida Kadoussi. “They killed our children. We have not been given our rights,” Kadoussi declared.      The broadcast was an event run by Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, which is investigating reports of torture, extrajudicial killings, and other government abuses dating back to 1955, the year before Tunisia’s independence from France. The commission was established in an effort to help reconcile the country’s troubled past and stabilize the democratic government established after the 2011 Tunisian uprising, which ousted former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. More public hearings will be held on December 17 and January 14, dates that commemorate the beginning of the 2011 uprising and Ben Ali’s flight from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia.

     Over the past three years, the commission has received more than 62,000 submissions and private testimonies from about 11,000 people. Those accused of abuse range from former Tunisian state authorities to heads of security forces. Sihem Bensedrine, a Tunisian activist persecuted under Ben Ali’s regime, who now heads the commission, said that the goal “is not revenge” but rather the need to “expose these testimonies for history.”

     The commission also hopes that the hearings will have a positive impact on the Tunisian economy “because foreign investors will know that Tunisia is implementing a path for transitional justice aimed at dismantling its authoritarian and corrupt system.”

     Amnesty International has hailed the commission, calling it “a historic opportunity to affirm a commitment to end impunity for past crimes under international law and human rights violations.” The group added that Tunisia still faces a “real test” of whether this transitional justice process “will ultimately lead to criminal prosecutions for the crimes of the past decades, which have thus far gone without adequate investigation or punishment.”