In Tunisia, despite the threats to its work, the Body Truth and Dignity (IVD), which is responsible for shedding light on the human rights violations committed under the presidencies Bourguiba and Ben Ali, does not give up not.
Earlier this week, Parliament refused her a six-month extension of her term, but the president of the IVD said she had not received any document at the moment to stop her work. A situation that worries all the same the victims of the dictatorship.
“It has been four years since transitional justice was put in place and now what does Parliament say that will take care of us? What are we going to become? We do not know anything! We want to know, we want to get justice.”
In the image of Dalila Ben Hamouda, daughter of a political prisoner, a dozen victims have let their distress erupt after the press conference organized at the headquarters of the IVD, and because people behind the legal debate about the fate of the case, there are 63,000 complaint files have been filed in four years.
Salah Mansour is the president of the Tunisian Network of Transitional Justice, a victims’ association. He believes that Parliament’s vote against extending the mandate of the IVD is illegal. But the tensions surrounding the revelation of the truth around the crimes of the past do not surprise him: “There are people who feel threatened and react. But we, our problem is the culmination of the whole process, and flouting the legislation, flouting the constitution, flouting the law is not a good omen”.
If IVD opponents win and prevent the extension of their mandate after May 31st, the court may not have the time to finish their assignment. The weeks and months ahead will be decisive for the future of transitional justice.
