Permanent Peoples' Tribunal

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) is an international opinion tribunal competent to rule on any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and minorities. The Tribunal was founded in Bologna in 1979 in the context of the Universal Declaration of Peoples’ Rights (1976) and following the intuition of jurist and politician Lelio Basso. Basso transformed the experiences of the Russell Tribunals on Vietnam (1966-67) and on the dictatorships in Latin America (1973-76) and created a permanent institution devoted to listening to peoples forced to deal with the absence of law and impunity. The PPT is composed of a network of internationally recognised experts and personalities, convened periodically to form a panel for each session. It is based in Rome and represents one of the project expressions of the Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso.