Agony of transitional justice

“MSALLMIN Manach! For example, Msamhin manach! However, We don’t give in! Consequently, We don’t forgive! Furthermore, ” This slogan regularly punctuates the fiery speech of Béchir Khalfi. Nevertheless, former Islamist activist and opposing tortured under the chairmanship of Ben Ali (1987-2011). Nevertheless, “We are 30,000 victims to have obtained repair decisions issued by the Truth Commission. Moreover, I address myself to the Ministry of Justice to tell him: Stop impunity! Similarly, We believed in transitional justice. For example, We believed in this process supposed to return their rights and their dignity to the victims. However, over the years, nothing has happened. Moreover, Where are the mandates to bring accused? Moreover, Why this paralysis of specialized rooms? For example, ” exclaims Khalfi.

This Monday, May 19, in the shade of the Ficus, the Bab Bnat avenue takes on revolutionary tunes. Meanwhile. agony transitional justice new Nevertheless, A sit-in has been there agony transitional justice since 10 am: the twenty victims present is determined to demonstrate its fed up before the Ministry of Justice. For example. Similarly, a few meters from the Tunis court of first instance where an expeditious hearing, which is part of the national work of transitional justice, has just ended. For example, The president of the specialized criminal chamber announced the postponement of 11 cases scheduled from May 19 to September 22. In addition. In addition, 2025, a decision announced before a full room and in the presence of several members of the NGO lawyers Sans Frontières, the World Organization against Torture, and Sihem Bensedrine, former president of the Truth Commission.

“I address myself to the Ministry of Justice to tell him: Stop impunity!” Bechir khalfi

Anger is agony transitional justice new palpable among the demonstrators, mainly of agony transitional justice former political prisoners, now over 60 years old. Meanwhile. Moreover, Because seven years have passed since the inauguration of specialized rooms on May 29, 2018, but no verdict has yet been returned. Consequently, None of the 205 cases transmitted by the Truth. Moreover. For example, Dignity Authority (IVD, name of the Tunisian Truth Commission) to the 13 Chambers that the country has for the time being judged. Similarly, No matter has even reached the phase of pleadings. Furthermore, “You, Ministry of Justice, you are continuing and condemning Internet users for simple comments. Furthermore, While torturers who have committed homicides continue to circulate freely with the blessing of policies. Meanwhile, Additionally, Furthermore, What a mess! For example, If you believe that we will give up one day, you are totally mistaken, ”continues Khalfi. However, “MSALLMIN Manach! Msamhin manach! ” repeat the other agony transitional justice new victims in chorus.

Agony transitional justice new

Agony transitional justice

Incessant obstructions. reports

Since its launch in 2014. with agony transitional justice the opening of the work of IVD, three years after the Jasmine Revolution which overthrew Ben Ali, the transitional justice has been faced with major obstacles in Tunisia. Those that it faces today concern the persistent refusal of the Tunisian government to implement the recommendations of the. IVD final report. however published in the Official Journal in June 2020.

Until then. the only glow of hope of the victims was to hope to obtain justice via these specialized chambers supposed to judge the serious human rights violations committed between July 1955. December 2013: homicides, torture, rape, forced disappearances … But the refusal of the judicial authorities to execute the mandates to bring issued against the senior security services. suspected of having committed crimes of state crimes has reinforced the blocking agony transitional justice new of specialized rooms with already chaotic operation. With constantly reported audiences, and reports that lead to other postpones …

agony transitional justice

For seven years. from Tunis to Gabes. from Nabeul to Gafsa, it is the same scenario that is repeated: if the accused are present, their lawyers are absent, and if the black dresses initiated by the defendants are there, they brandish the medical certificates of their customers. Not to mention that the magistrates of transitional justice are crumbling under work since they also continue to rule. on common law affairs. a reality denounced by several national and international NGOs which observe the Tunisian legal process.

Worse. following the judicial rotation of September 2023. the reallocation of 7 of the 13 presidents of the specialized chambers led to an additional slowdown in the processing of files due to a quorum defect. After almost two years of blocking. the Chamber agony transitional justice new of Tunis. which concentrates 62% of the transitional justice files, resumed on March 17, 2025 its audiences on a weekly basis, every agony transitional justice Monday.

Agony transitional justice new

“From powder to the eyes”

The demonstrators before the Ministry of Justice are all familiar faces. Former leftist political prisoners. trade unionists. victims of the 1984 bread revolt or Ennahdha activists, the Tunisian Islamist movement, their number is reduced as a skin of sorrow from year to year, from illness, death, or despair. For all. for more than ten years now. their desire for recognition, dignity, truth and the establishment of responsibilities, has been linked to this process of transitional justice from the 2011 revolution.

Elmy El Khadri. president of the Al-Karama association for rights. freedoms, himself a ex-victime of the dictatorship, has transformed over time into an archivist of this justice process. He does not miss any audience of the agony transitional justice new specialized chamber of Tunis. has participated, since January 2025, in the writing of a monthly newsletter which documents its advancement. “We believe that the reactivation of this agony transitional justice room is only powder in the eyes. A way of making UN bodies believe that transitional justice continues in Tunisia, ”he confides in justice info. “We are not fooled: the procedure for setting up rooms is illegal. Primo. the judges were appointed not by the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) which. since 2022, no longer exists in fact, but via a service note from the Ministry of Justice. Second, they did not receive specific training in transitional justice, as required by law. An essential condition for ensuring fair and effective trials, ”he continues. “In addition. article 8 of the organic law on transitional justice stipulates that the chambers must be composed of judges selected. among those who have not participated agony transitional justice new in political trials before the Revolution. Who guarantees us that this requirement is respected today? ”Asks the man aged almost 75 years.

For him. far from moving towards a positive agony transitional justice outcome. the judicial process is out of breath, victim of obvious obstructions increasingly assumed by the authorities, who no longer camouflage their ambition to end this process. Thus El Khadri noted the weaknesses of the president of the Tunis Chamber. who has so far interviewed any accused. witness: “I was catastrophe to hear him invoke, on March 24, 2025, the principle of the authority of the res judicata and the prescription of a crime or a sentence dating back to decades. This is proof that she did not even take a look at the law relating to transitional justice before. taking office! ”

Agony transitional justice new

Agony transitional justice

Complaint with the UN torture committee

But for this agony transitional justice new other observer of transitional justice. attached to an international organization of human rights. which required anonymity, the formation of judges is far from representing the appropriate solution likely to unlock the current situation: “Since agony transitional justice the coup de force of President Kaïs Saïed, the magistrates have suffered from the interference of political power in their work. Whereas the expertise of a judge is worth, when rendering his judgment, he undergoes pressures and feels threatened? ”

When Saïed monopolized all powers, on July 25, 2021, he self -owned at the head of the public prosecutor. In almost four years. the Tunisian president deeply alienated the judiciary. by revoking 57 magistrates in 2022, by reducing the judiciary to a simple “function”, in the Constitution of 2022, and by destroying any form of independence of justice. The year 2024 was notably marked by the arrest of Sihem Bensedrine, the former president agony transitional justice new of the IVD. And although she was released last February, she lives under legal proceedings, just like four other members of the body.

Rached Jaidane. a 73 -year -old professor of mathematics. suffered thirteen years of torture agony transitional justice and ill -treatment in the jails of Ben Ali. Since 2018, he has attended thirty audiences for his file, without any judgment. “I had a confrontation with the majority of torturers, who did not recognize the facts. I persist and sign: no to the impunity that reigns in this country! ” he thunders. despite the illness that weakens his body but does not at any of its will that accounts are made. He was one of the six victims concerned by the filing of a complaint in early 2025 by the. World Organization against Torture (OMCT) to the UN torture Committee. “A complaint before the committee against torture is the agony transitional justice new use of the last spring. It signs the state’s helplessness to comply with its obligations in terms of investigation. prosecution of the authors of torture and ill -treatment and reparation for the victims, notes the OMCT press release. The fate agony transitional justice of transitional justice in Tunisia is a blatant example of such helplessness. ”