Public Hearings

Ombudsperson's Office for Transitional Justice (OTJ) aims to conduct a series of public hearings by giving victims a chance to share their stories or experiences before a public audience, particularly where the hearings are aired on the television or the radio, allowing victims the chance to be heard. OTJ believes that these public hearings would help to engage the public as an audience, encouraging press coverage of the issues over a longer period and stimulating a national discussion about the past. These public hearings will focus on listening to the victims as well as provide a sense of relief in general. Information gathered through these hearings will be used by OTJ for investigation and research purposes.

Objectives of a public hearing:

To share victims’ sufferings to the public.

To encourage authorities to find justice for the victims

To bring truth about past violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

To inform the public about cases involving public interest

To make public aware of human rights violations

To collect information for the investigations and research purposes

Who Can Participate?

Victims of the respective case, anyone who can share information regarding the case and government representatives can also give statements at a public hearing and share their stories with the public.

Why Should You Participate?

Public hearings allow victims and other people involved to share the sequence of events of a particular case from their own perspective. Public hearings also enable clarification of information regarding the case and assists in uncovering the truth of the case.

Standard Code of Conduct of Public Hearing

Those who are delivering statements at a public hearing must speak the truth.
Participants of a public hearing including victims, witnesses, media and audience must maintain cordial communication amongst each other.
Participants of a public hearing must adhere to the instructions given by the moderator and security officers.

Importance of Public Hearing

The main purpose of conducting a public hearing is to offer victims of injustices the chance to publicly share their stories, which may be a form of consolation for the victims. These public hearings will also increase awareness among the public regarding acts of human rights violations, enforce such actions to not be repeated in the future and help build a community which respects human rights.