Tunisia votes to end Truth and Dignity Commission
Tue Mar 27, 2018 03:34:pm Africa
3.9K By Obiaks Blog
Tunisia's parliament has voted to end the country's Truth and Dignity Commission - which had been charged with healing the wounds of six decades of dictatorship, news agency AFP reports.
Tunisian MPs did not back an extension of the project, although dozens of MPs did not vote.
They left Parliament ahead of the ballot, following two "particularly stormy" debates, AFP said.
The tribunal was set up in 2014 to investigate human rights violations, hold perpetrators to account and rehabilitate their victims under the former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled in 2011.
Since it was established, it has received more than 62,000 allegations of human rights violations.
Shortly before the vote, researcher Eric Gobe accused the current government of sliding back into old practices.
"Since 2014, the government has seen a significant return of the former regime's elite, and it seems difficult for some who may find themselves in the spotlight to accept" the tribunal's work, which began in the same year, he said.
Some MPs are hoping it can continue without a government mandate.
BBC
Tunisian MPs did not back an extension of the project, although dozens of MPs did not vote.
They left Parliament ahead of the ballot, following two "particularly stormy" debates, AFP said.
The tribunal was set up in 2014 to investigate human rights violations, hold perpetrators to account and rehabilitate their victims under the former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled in 2011.
Since it was established, it has received more than 62,000 allegations of human rights violations.
Shortly before the vote, researcher Eric Gobe accused the current government of sliding back into old practices.
"Since 2014, the government has seen a significant return of the former regime's elite, and it seems difficult for some who may find themselves in the spotlight to accept" the tribunal's work, which began in the same year, he said.
Some MPs are hoping it can continue without a government mandate.
BBC
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