Mandate and functions of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT)

As declared in its Statute, the Tribunal’s competence extends to serious and systematic violations of the rights of peoples, whether committed by States, by authorities other than States, or by private groups or organizations. The Tribunal is competent to give judgments on any international crime, specifically on crimes against peace and humanity, genocide, any infringement of the fundamental rights of peoples and minorities, and grave and systematic violations of the rights and freedoms of individuals.

In the context of the global challenges introduced by globalization and the financialization of the economy, the PPT has developed a new area of research on economic and corporate crimes, ecological crimes, and systemic crimes.

Global Pact of Solidarity WG PPT

The activity of the PPT is due to the lack of an international jurisdiction on peoples’ rights. In its judgments, the PPT has gone beyond the mere application of existing rules and has evidenced legal contradictions or gaps, in order to indicate forms of application and commitment of future positive law. More information on http://permanentpeoplestribunal.org/mandate-and-functions/?lang=en

Introduction to the 45th session of the PPT on the Violations of the Human Rights of Migrant and Refugee Peoples

The Permanent Peoples Tribunal on the Violations of the Human Rights of Migrant and Refugee Peoples launched in Barcelona on July 7-8, 2017 was co-convened by more than 30 migrant and refugee organisations and endorsed by 100 movements, networks, and organisations.

The preparation process included two preparatory meetings, the setting up of a PPT Working Group (Barcelona-based migrant and other organisations; the Transnational Migrant Platform-Europe and other movements involved in the struggles of migrant and refugee peoples) in regular coordination with the PPT Secretariat.

PPT Sessions are being organised within the framework of the indictment developed for the launch in Barcelona – which is based on an analysis of the current economic and political conjuncture globally as well as in Europe and drawn from the testimonies and lived experiences of migrant and refugee peoples. Four key pillars make up the framework of the PPT:

  • Root Causes of Forced Displacement & Conditions of conflict and war leading to outmigration and refugee
  • Hazardous Journeys and closing down of legal routes
  • Border regimes of exclusion/walls/immigrations policy
  • Fortress Europe – experience of precarious migrant status and exploitative conditions of work within Europe

Gender, Youth and Racism are identified as cross cutting issues across these pillars.

Goal and Objectives of the PPT on Migrant and Refugee Peoples

The overall goal is to strengthen the role of Migrant and Refugee peoples as key protagonists and social actors in the articulation of the conjuncture, the naming of the violations of their human rights and in proposing alternatives. The PPT also aims to facilitate migrant and refugee movements to develop new alliances with other social movements and with the research, academe and other related sectors.

Specific objectives of the PPT process include:

  • Receive and document rigorously the testimonies of the communities of migrants and refugees including their proposals to advance a rights-based approach and an alternative framework.
  • Listen and make visible the cases of violations of the rights of migrants and refugees.
  • Analyse jointly the root causes (including trade and investment agreements, global extractivism as well as the global production and labour chain) of the forced displacement of migrants and refugees.
  • Determine the responsibilities of governments, including the European Union and other official European bodies.
  • Focus the role of transnational corporations in the global labour chain, as well as in the border regimes, and in detention and in deportation

PPT Process – Hearings and Sessions

On July 8, 2017, the official opening of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Session on The violations with impunity of the Human Rights of Migrants and Refugee peoples was carried out in the city of Barcelona. The call for action disseminated by TMP-E and TNI focuses its reasons on the necessity “to give visibility to the people of migrant persons as an inviolable subject of rights; to identify and judge the “chain” of co-responsibility along the migratory route leading to the violation of migrant people’s human rights; and to urgently provide and foster adequate measures for access to justice”.

Please see documents of the different hearings (Palermo, Paris, Barcelona, London, Brussels, Berlin) in the Archive below.

PPT/Working group Mobilisation

As Co-Convenors of the 45th session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, we are aware of the challenges raised by the strategies of resistance and the alternatives that migrant and refugee peoples are building, despite their exclusion in “non-rights zones”. We will continue working on the demands formulated during the PPT hearing process and strengthening our alliances to converge towards a new era of transnational action and solidarity.

We are now in a follow-up phase that developed organically. In 2021, we have done several activities in the context of Movement Building as PPT/WG Mobilisation:

  • Building the Global Pact of Solidarity
  • Building New Narratives

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