Transitional Justice in Tunisia: Negotiating Justice during Transition
Transitional Justice in Tunisia: Negotiating Justice during Transition

Summary/Abstract: On 14 January 2011 the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali left Tunisia confronted with the task of addressing the dual legacy of Ben Ali’s violent crackdown on protesters in the weeks preceding his ouster and decades of widespread human rights abuses. In the immediate aftermath of 14 January, interim governments launched a number of improvised efforts to deal with the past. These efforts included investigative commissions, compensation, vetting of former regime officials, and criminal trials. However, it was only after the election of the National Constituent Assembly in October 2011 that there was a concerted effort to draft a comprehensive law on transitional justice. Tunisia’s Ministry of Human Rights and Transitional Justice launched a national consultation to define and shape transitional justice mechanisms for post-Ben Ali Tunisia. This article argues that although Tunisia’s national consultation on transitional justice can be heralded as a novel consultative initiative to transmit transitional justice demands into transitional justice legislation, it has also served to highlight contested visions of the post-Ben Ali state and contested memories of Tunisia’s secularist and Islamist political traditions.

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