The Truth and Dignity Commission (Arabic: هيئة الحقيقة والكرامة) (Hai'at ul-Ḥaqiqa wul-Karāma) (French: Instance Vérité et Dignité) is an independent tribunal established by law in Tunisia on 23 December 2013^[1] and formally launched on 9 June 2014 by then-President Moncef Marzouki.^[2] Established following the Tunisian Revolution, its purpose is to investigate gross human rights violations committed by the Tunisian State since 1955 and to provide compensation and rehabilitation to victims.^[3] The Commission was given a four-year mandate (i.e. to 2018) with the possibility of a one-year extension.^[4][5] Its president is the human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine.^[6]

Final report

Bensedrine revealed the commission's final report on March 26, 2019. The 2,000-page, Arabic-language record of human rights abuses is available online. Among the offenses mentioned in the report are unfair trials in 1963 regarding an attempted military coup against President Habib Bourguiba; Tunisia's late president, Béji Caïd Essebsi, was involved in those trials as then-director of national security.^[7]

Process

The Commission, which was designed to use judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, began gathering testimonies from victims of abuse under the old regime in September 2015. It continued to accept new cases until a cut-off date for registrations in June 2016,^[8] by which time it had received over 62,000 submissions and heard testimony from about 11,000 people.^[9] The Commission held its first public hearing in Tunis on 17 November 2016.^[10]

The Commission has faced criticism on a number of grounds, including the slowness of its operations,^[11] the basis of its approach,^[12] and the fitness of its president,^[13] among others. As a result of ongoing concerns, there was a delay in the parliamentary vote to approve the Commissions's budget for 2017^[14] although it was eventually agreed by 121 votes to 28 with 21 abstentions.^[15]

The Commission's members, as of late 2016, were Sihem Bensedrine (president), Ibtihel Abdellatif, Oula Ben Nejma, Mohammed Ben Salem, Ali Gherab, Khaled Krichi, Adel Maïzi, Hayet Ouertani and Slaheddine Rached.^[16]