Whose justice? Youth, reconciliation, and the state in post-Ben Ali Tunisia

Abstract

Human rights and transitional justice studies have increasingly homed in on the role of civil society. However, literature on marginalized actors, such as youth, still remains limited. This article examines the impact of youth activism aimed at promoting sustainable accountability efforts in the aftermath of initial reckoning with violence and repression. Drawing on more than two dozen interviews and conceptual elements of broader transition literature, this research maps the advocacy work of a youth movement, Manich Msamah, in post-Ben Ali Tunisia. Focusing on the passage of controversial legislation (the law on administrative reconciliation), the authors argue that, despite a politicization of transitional justice measures, youth activism succeeded in influencing institutionalized practices and shaping the legislative agenda-setting process. Youth activists have introduced new transitional justice tropes, particularly concepts of social and economic justice, to society. The broader participatory impact of youth in Tunisia remains nonetheless uncertain.

Acknowledgments

The ideas for this coauthored article developed after a mutual encounter of the authors at Columbia University, where Aymen Belhadj was s visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights in Fall 2018. This research has been supported by the TARICA Project, short for “PoliTical And socioinstitutional change in NoRth AfrICA: competition of models and diversity of national trajectories.” The authors would like to thank Lara Nettelfield for her valuable insights and support during Mr. Belhadj’s stay and are grateful for the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers and the editors, which helped strengthen certain parts of the manuscript. They are also indebted to Allison Sherrier for her thoughtful copy edits, and conversations with numerous colleagues and friends who helped improve the overall clarity and structure of the piece.

Notes

1 President Beji Caid Essebsi proposed the law during a speech celebrating the anniversary of the country’s independence in spring 2015.

2 It should be noted that this article does not address internal dynamics and politics of the Manich Msamah youth movement, or its emergence and related issues. These inquiries are part of a separate study to be published in 2020. The focus here lies on social movement interactions and their effects on society and decision-making processes.

3 The findings of the movement’s internal structure and politics will be published in a separate study by Aymen Belhadj in 2020.

4 Female voices have also had an impact in Tunisia’s postauthoritarian era, including pundit and artist Héla Ammar and cartoonist Nadia Khiari, both of whom have contributed to a more nuanced, public debate during the country’s transition.

5 The Trabelsi family heavily abused public funds under Ben Ali’s rule.

6 See, for instance, Venice Commission, Council of Europe (2015).

7 Interview with campaign members during fieldwork in September 2015.

8 Interview with campaign members during fieldwork in September 2015. This accusation is a widely-held belief among opponents of political Islam in Tunisian society and spans from political party to constituents.

9 The statement has been translated by the authors and was recorded during participant observation fieldwork on September 3, 2015, in front of the Municipal Theater of Tunis.

10 The member was invited to speak on national television for the first time, explaining Manich Msamah’s vision regarding the national law on reconciliation and the question of fighting against impunity of white-collar crimes.

11 This text has been translated by the authors; see the Arabic version at Attessia TV (2017).

12 This text has been translated by the authors, see Babnet Tunisie (2017).

13 This text has been translated by the authors, see Babnet Tunisie (2017).

14 This was the largest protest organized by Manich Msamah, which brought together all opposition parties and numerous civil society actors.

15 Other coalition partners included the Independent National Coordination for Transitional Justice (CNIJT), Lawyers without Borders, the ICTJ, the Tunisian League of Human Rights, the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, and the Tunisian Forum of Socioeconomic Rights (FTDES).

16 Text translated by authors.

17 For bylaws, see http://www.arp.tn/site/main/AR/docs/reg_int_arp.pdf (accessed on January 20, 2019).

18 Interviews with campaign members during fieldwork in fall 2015.

19 As a government coalition partner, the leaders of Ennahda agreed at a meeting on August, 15, 2013, with Nidaa Tounes, also known as the Paris agreement, to pursue a transitional justice strategy in Tunisia that would provide impunity for public officials vis-à-vis corruption and embezzlement and embrace a forward-looking approach, instead of insisting on looking back and implementing numerous accountability measures.

20 See also Nawaat news analysis at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg4mEHgaWe8 (accessed on January 31, 2019).

21 Interview with campaign members during fieldwork in fall 2015 and fieldwork conducted in 2017.

22 Interview with campaign members during fieldwork in February 2016.

23 Although authorities estimated the number of participants to be around 2,000, organizers put forward a much higher number, around 15,000. Discrepancies are, of course, due to the origin of the sources, both of which have an interest in downplaying or highlighting the importance of the protest.

24 Other issues, such as the perennial question around Essebsi’s son and the presidential succession, have also fueled the weak electoral outcome.

25 Interview with campaign members during fieldwork in February 2018.

26 For more details see, testimony of Imed Trabelsi, son-in-law of Ben Ali, before the TDC at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zvUK3HWHNc&t=12s (accessed on January, 31, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aymen Belhadj

Aymen Belhadj is a doctoral student at Sorbonne University–Paris 1 Panthéon and associate researcher at the Research Institute on Contemporary Maghreb. His work addresses the role of youth advocacy in post-Ben-Ali Tunisia. It homes in on social injustice, particularly exploring the struggle to account for economic and white-collar crimes under the old, autocratic regime. He has held several fellowships, including at Columbia University.

Arnaud Kurze

Arnaud Kurze is associate professor of justice studies at Montclair State University. His scholarly work on transitional justice in the post-Arab Spring world focuses particularly on youth activism, art, and collective memory. He was appointed a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, from 2016 to 2020, studying youth resilience in North Africa and the Middle East. He has published widely in academic journals, contributed to edited volumes, and is the author of several reports on foreign affairs for government and international organizations. He is also the coeditor of the book, New Critical Spaces in Transitional Justice: Gender, Art & Memory (Indiana University Press, 2019).