Do You Swear to Tell the Whole Truths? Tunisia and the Truth and Dignity Commission.

Sammanfattning: Tunisia is where all hope and rebellion started. After the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in 2010, the Jasmine Revolution spread to other Arab countries leading to the famous Arab Spring. Tunisia is depicted as the model of democratic transition in the Arab region and in the West. Transitional justice mechanisms have been implemented in the country, notably a Truth and Dignity Commission aiming to uncover the past horrors committed during the authoritarian regimes. The Truth and Dignity Commission was mandated to conduct investigations, hearings and auditions in 2013 and has released its report this year, in March 2019. It denounces years of abuse, torture, impunity and corruption committed by the regime and its partisans, infiltrated in all the layers of the Tunisian society, and making the truth and the truth commission heated debates for the Tunisians and turning points in their history. This research aimed to discover what types of truths were revealed through this Tunisian truth commission and what they served. Using content analysis as a methodology, legal documents, retrieved interviews, testimonials, as well as the works of Foucault and Minow as supporting material, the research findings show that truths in the context of the TDC meant freedom of information and of speech, as well as the reconstruction of memory and of history allowing forgiveness and the healing of trauma. However, the absence and negligence of the perpetrators and of those responsible make the process of reconciliation difficult to measure right now in this process of democratization that Tunisia experiences.