Wounded Tunisians during the 2011 protests take part in a rally to mark the fifth anniversary of the Arab Spring. Picture by Riadh Dridi AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved. On the 17th and 18th of November, 2016, Tunisia witnessed historic televised public testimonies from survivors and relatives of those who were killed or disappeared under the repressive regimes since the 1950s. How did Tunisia get to this stage in the process of Transitional Justice (TJ)? How has the public event itself unfolded? And what does the nation expect from the process?
A troubled transitional justice process
The 2011 revolution in Tunisia opened up old wounds and an appetite for revenge, but also venues for proper transitional justice. Local need for it was immense and foreign interest soon followed. NGOs set up local branches, key figures poured in from Poland, former Yugoslavia, Spain, Latin America and Africa, to lend support and provide experience. Tunisia was in fact seen, almost immediately, as a test case for implementing transitional justice in the Arab world. The International Centre for Transitional Justice paid special attention to Tunisia immediately after the revolution and held a high-profile international conference in Tunis in April 2011. But the process was not without flaws. The transitional period was the subject of intense political and social debate and pressure. It was chaotic and piecemeal.
The chaos came in the form of multiplicity and deregulation of venues for the expression of grievances: impromptu confessions on the streets; television programmes such as mudhakkirat sajin (prisoner’s memories) on the national Channel 2 television; various fora opened up by NGO’s; a number of conferences, most prominently by Temimi Foundation which did more than most to record, debate and even “counsel” victims, publishing more than 5000 pages of accounts. Reparation and restitution for victims of the Ben Ali era in particular became a pressing issue, leading to limiting focus on financial compensation and finding employment for those who were dismissed or excluded for political reasons. There was also a hasty general amnesty, which included high profile Islamist terrorists. In addition, Tunisia did not have a unifying figure around whom the entire nation could unite and reconcile as was the case for South Africa with Nelson Mandela.
