The UN reproaches the Libyan authorities for their “unacceptable silence” on victims of human rights violations

29 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The UN Independent Investigation Mission on Libya has embarrassed the Libyan authorities this Sunday for their “unacceptable silence” regarding the victims of Human Rights violations and has summoned them to inform the families of the ongoing investigations .

The members of the Mission have met in Tripoli between January 23 and 26 with victims and representatives who provided testimonies related to extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, human trafficking, internal displacement, the existence of mass graves and funeral homes with corpses to which families do not have access.

The victims “have been waiting for justice for too long” for which the Libyan authorities “must share information about their loved ones with them,” the Mission said in a statement after its last visit to the country.

Thus, it calls for “firm measures to impart justice and compensate the large number of victims who suffered violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law” and reproaches that it is “a situation that has been taking place for a long time.”

“The families of the victims have been waiting for too long for justice,” said the president of the Mission, Mohammad Auajjar. Human rights experts Tracy Robinson and Chaloka Beyani also participate in the Mission.

“The Libyan authorities must share information about their loved ones with them, meet with them and give them answers. Silence is unacceptable,” reiterated Auajjar, who has also asked for “answers on the status of multiple investigations regarding serious violations of rights humans”, from which he did not obtain “any satisfactory answer”.

ARBITRARY DETENTION

The experts have regretted that they were not able to meet with the Libyan Attorney General to obtain information on the many cases brought forward by victims who are under the mandate of his investigation.

“The state authorities with whom we met have told us about their efforts to strengthen the rule of law, but these efforts have failed to achieve justice for the victims and their families,” Robinson said. “When the victims spoke to us you could see their deep sense of loss. Their desire for justice that has gone unfulfilled, in many cases for years,” she added.

The specialists also regretted that the authorities did not provide them with access to prisons and detention centers throughout the country, despite repeated requests.

Chaloka Beyani has affirmed in this regard that “arbitrary detention in Libya has become widespread as a tool of repression and political control, which explains why thousands of people are deprived of their liberty, often in poor conditions, without procedural guarantees or access to justice “.

Experts have asked Libyan officials for the immediate release of Iftijar Budra, a woman detained in Benghazi four years ago following critical comments she made on social media about militarization in the East. Budra is reportedly seriously ill and her family says that she has not been allowed to visit her for eight months.

The UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya was created by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2020 with the mandate to investigate alleged violations and abuses of international Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law standards committed in Libya. country since 2016.