Permanent People's Tribunal

The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an international opinion tribunal independent from State authorities. It examines and provides judgements relatives to violations of human rights and rights of peoples. The Tribunal was founded in Bologna (Italy), June 24, 1979, by law experts, writers and other intellectuals. It succeeded the Russell Tribunal (or International War Crimes Tribunal), which, in 1967, exposed the War Crimes committed against the Vietnamese people. The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal was created out of the Lelio Basso International Foundation for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples (FILB), established in 1976 and inspired by the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples at Algiers (also named the Algiers Declaration). The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal may use International human rights law, or the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the United Nations.

The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal examined the cases of Tibet, Western Sahara, Argentina, Eritrea, Philippine, El Salvador, Afghanistan, East Timor, Zaïre, Guatemala, the Armenian Genocide, the intervention of the United States in Nicaragua, Brazilian Amazon, etc. In certain cases (Central America, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhopal disaster …), commissions of investigation went on the spot.

In 1996, after the session of Permanent Peoples' Tribunal on Industrial Hazards and Human Rights in Bhopal, 1992, the "Charter on Industrial Hazards and Human Rights" was adopted.