Tunisia-Amnesty Int’l Calls on Tunisia to Uphold Transitional Justice

As Fakhfakh was sworn in on Thursday, Amnesty called for “his government to publicly commit to a zero-tolerance approach to human rights violations, and that accountability for past crimes – as well as those committed by security forces since 2011 – will be prioritised.”

“While there has been significant and positive change over the past nine years when it comes to political freedoms, Tunisia’s security sector to a great extent remains unreformed and unaccountable,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Tolerating ongoing impunity sends the message that committing grave human rights violations has no consequences – which completely compromises any efforts to end practices such as torture and excessive use of force,” she pointed out.

“It is high time that the Tunisian authorities took steps to end impunity by ensuring that complaints related to human rights violations such as torture are promptly, independently and impartially investigated, and those responsible are held to account after fair trials,” she added.

“It is unacceptable that more than nine years after the Tunisian uprising, most of the credible allegations against members of the security forces have not yet resulted in prosecutions.”

The overwhelming majority of investigations involving members of security forces as suspects do not lead to successful prosecutions of perpetrators. There are also serious questions about independence and impartiality of such investigations. In April 2019, Amnesty highlighted four cases where victims and their families were still waiting for justice, including two cases in which the use of unnecessary or excessive force by the police led to the death of the victims.

The open letter also stresses the importance of upholding the transitional justice process by enabling and protecting the criminal accountability process that started in 2018. It also calls for the new government to fulfil what is required by the transitional justice law, namely the publication of the Truth and Dignity Commission’s report and of the plan to implementation its recommendations.