Tunisia: the Transitional Justice Academy enhances civil society capacity on documenting human rights violations and crimes

 
 
On 20-23 September 2013, Al-Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center (KADEM) and No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) convened in Hammamet a specialised training course of civil society on documentation of human rights violations and crimes under international law. The three-day activity, which was held within the framework of the Transitional Justice Academy, brought together 20 people who already have experience in transitional justice and documenting human rights violations. The group included judges, legal professionals, representatives of civil society and victims organisations.
 
Accountability mechanism face a number of challenges in Tunisia with respect to holding perpetrators accountable, including for the difficulty of providing reliable evidence. By boosting the capacity of civil society actors to undertake investigations and documentation of human rights violations, the program will allow them to contribute to the work of State institutions. The training course was specifically dedicated to strengthen the capacity of participants to investigate and bring credible information to accountability processes and bodies, including the Commission on Truth and Dignity which is foreseen in the Draft Transitional Justice Legislation.
 
The Palestinian expert conducting the activity broadened the expertise available under the Academy and he was supported by a Tunisian expert, who had taken part in most of the activities under the Academy, including the Trainer of Trainers held on 31 January-4February 2012. They engaged participants on the main components of investigation and documentation of human rights violations and crimes under international law. In each session, after an initial presentation from the trainers, participants continued discussions on the various topics in working group, brainstormed on a number of issues and conducted practical exercises.
 
 

Documentation:

• Download the Report of the Training Workshop on "Documentation of human rights violations and crimes under international law"

• For further information, please contact Greta Barbone on gbarbone@npwj.org or +216 28385079 or Nicola Giovannini on ngiovannini@npwj.org or +32 (0)2 548-39 15.
• For more information about NPWJ and KADEM’s work on transitional justice in Tunisia, please click here