Amnesty Int’l Calls on Tunisia to Uphold Transitional Justice

Arab World

March 1st, 8:20am

Tunisia - Mongi Saidani

Amnesty Int’l Calls on Tunisia to Uphold Transitional Justice

In an open letter sent to Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh, Amnesty International called “the new Tunisian government to take the opportunity to break the pattern of impunity for security forces accused of human rights violations.” 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 prioritized.” "While there has been a 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. 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 fulfill what is required by the transitional justice law, namely the publication of the Truth and Dignity Commission's report and of the plan to implement its recommendations.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2156936/amnesty-int%E2%80%99l-calls-tunisia-uphold-transitional-justice