Sihem Bensedrine, President of the Commission, speaking in 2012
The Truth and Dignity Commission (Arabic: هيئة الحقيقة والكرامة) (Hai'at ul-Ḥaqiqa wul-Karāma) (French: Instance Vérité et Dignité) is an independent tribunal established by law in Tunisia on 23 December 2013[1] and formally launched on 9 June 2014 by then-President Moncef Marzouki.[2] Established following the Tunisian Revolution, its purpose is to investigate gross human rights violations committed by the Tunisian State since 1955 and to provide compensation and rehabilitation to victims.[3] The Commission was given a four-year mandate (i.e. to 2018) with the possibility of a one-year extension.[4][5] Its president is the human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine.[6]
Final report
Bensedrine revealed the commission's final report on March 26, 2019. The 2,000-page, Arabic-language record of human rights abuses is available online. Among the offenses mentioned in the report are unfair trials in 1963 regarding an attempted military coup against President Habib Bourguiba; Tunisia's late president, Béji Caïd Essebsi, was involved in those trials as then-director of national security.[7]
Process
The Commission, which was designed to use judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, began gathering testimonies from victims of abuse under the old regime in September 2015. It continued to accept new cases until a cut-off date for registrations in June 2016,[8] by which time it had received over 62,000 submissions and heard testimony from about 11,000 people.[9] The Commission held its first public hearing in Tunis on 17 November 2016.[10]
The Commission has faced criticism on a number of grounds, including the slowness of its operations,[11] the basis of its approach,[12] and the fitness of its president,[13] among others. As a result of ongoing concerns, there was a delay in the parliamentary vote to approve the Commissions's budget for 2017[14] although it was eventually agreed by 121 votes to 28 with 21 abstentions.[15]
