War crimes and crimes against humanity are committed in Libya

In Libya, there are sufficient reasons to say that government forces and armed groups have committed a wide range of war crimes and crimes against humanity in recent years, warned this Monday the Investigative Mission for that country.

The latest report from that group of experts indicates that state security forces have seriously violated the human rights of dissidents and the most vulnerable migrants, underlining with alarm impunity for these abuses.

The Mission reported arbitrary arrests, murders, torture, rape, slavery, and forced disappearances as widespread practices in the North African country. Sexual slavery against migrants was also added to the list.

The Mission’s president, Mohamed Auajjar, urged the Libyan authorities to develop a comprehensive, victim-focused human rights action plan and roadmap.

The expert also asked transitional justice and accountability of all those responsible for human rights violations.

Libya has been in armed conflict since Muammar al-Qaddafi was ousted in 2011, with the country divided between rival administrations and warring militias: a UN-recognized Government of National Accord based in the capital Tripoli; and the Libyan National Army of General Khalifa Haftar, which dominates the east and south of the oil country.

The Mission highlighted the impunity with which human rights violations are carried out in Libya and explained that the majority of victims are very afraid and mistrust in the justice system to make official complaints. As a result, the violations continue.

The experts called for the creation of new investigation and monitoring mechanisms human rights, to “support Libya’s reconciliation efforts” and help authorities achieve “transitional justice and accountability.”

Abuses against migrants

The report details that from July 2022 to date, more than 670,000 migrants from more than 41 countries are in Libya. Interviews with more than a hundred of them yielded overwhelming evidence of systematic torture and sexual slaveryamong other violations.

The detention centers in which migrants are enslaved are under the real or nominal control of the authoritiesincluding the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration and the Libyan Coast Guard.

The experts indicated that the large-scale exploitation of migrants it is a lucrative business and they added that trafficking, slavery, forced labor, imprisonment, extortion, and smuggling “generated significant income for individuals, groups, and state institutions.”

Hits during arrests

Regarding the abuses perpetrated against the detainees, the Mission maintained that they are responsibility of state authorities and their leaders.

Add that the victims come from all segments of Libyan society and include children, men and women, human rights defenders, political activists, representatives of civil society, members of the military or security forces, legal professionals and members of the LGBTI community.

Most of the people interviewed by the Mission were held without charge in inhumane conditions and were regularly subjected to torture, solitary confinement and incommunicado confinement, and without access to water, food and other essential goods.

The situation of women worsens

Regarding the situation of women in Libya, the experts asserted that it has worsened in the last three years, in a context of weakening of State institutions and the growing power of armed groups.

The report reports the systematic discrimination against women, the increase in domestic violence -which is not punished by any law-, and the lack of accountability for crimes against prominent women leaders.

End of Mission

The Investigative Mission was created by the Human Rights Council in 2020 to investigate human rights violations committed by all parties since the beginning of 2016, the Mission’s mandate ends on April 4, at a time when “the human rights situation in Libya is deteriorating, parallel state authorities are emerging and the legislative, executive and security sector reforms needed to uphold the rule of law and unify the country are far from being realized,” the report said.

In this context, the Mission urged the Human Rights Council to establish a “independent and well-resourced international investigative mechanism”, and ordered the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to create another mechanism “with a continuous mandate to monitor and report serious human rights violations in Libya”.

In addition, the report calls on the international community to cease all direct and indirect support to Libyan actors involved in crimes against humanity and violations of the human rights of migrants.

The Mission also announced that submit its findings to the International Criminal Court, including a list of “potential perpetrators” of international crimes.