Mohsen Marsouk, left, Taoufik Bouderbala, and Amine Ghali. |
Today, the star of the show as Taoufik Bouderbala, who is president of the new Commission. He was accompanied by several members of the Commission. We also heard from Mohsen Marzouk, the eloquent and dynamic secretary general of the Arab Democracy Foundation and President of the Kawakibi Centre.
When I arrived in Tunis yesterday, there were big crowds at the airport. These were Tunisians returning from neighbouring Libya. We drove past the Libyan embassy on our way to the hotel. I'm told the Libyan ambassador has resigned. There were crowds outside the Libyan embassy.
At today's session we spoke at length about truth commissions and their relationship with the existing justice system. Tunisia has a very functional and professional justice system - unlike countries like Sierra Leone - but obviously it remains tainted by the regime with which it was associated. The new commissions seem an exciting way to help push along the democratisation process in Tunisia.
I've been to Tunisia several times in the past. The atmosphere was always stifling because while foreigners could of course say what they wanted about human rights, we knew that terrible abuses were going on too, and from time to time we would hear that our Tunisian colleagues had been imprisoned. We would write letters to embassies, that sort of thing.
How thrilling it was yesterday to get off the plane and breathe the fresh air of freedom. Now, I think the Tunisians also want to breathe the fresh air of justice.
1 comment:
Professor Schabas, since you raise Libya in your post, I wonder if you have any comment on questions that have been raised as to what is occurring in Libya and whether they can properly described as genocide?
And of course thanks very much for the bringing us news on this development in Tunisia. It is incredible to see how fast a pace change can occur!
Post a Comment