New York, USA, January 31, 2022/African Media Agency(AMA)/The Libyan authorities must take action to bring justice to the large number of victims of human rights and international humanitarian law violations, the Mission said on Sunday. United Nations independent fact-finding body on Libya following a visit to the country.
“The families of these victims have waited too long for justice,” said Mohammad Auajjar, president of the fact-finding mission, quoted in a press release from the United Nations Human Rights Council. “The Libyan authorities owe it to them to share information about their relatives, meet them and provide them with answers. Silence is unacceptable”.
“We, too, have repeatedly requested responses on the status of multiple investigations into serious human rights violations, but to date no satisfactory response has been forthcoming,” added Mr Auajjar.
The fact-finding mission, which also includes experts Tracy Robinson and Chaloka Beyani, was established by the Human Rights Council in June 2020 with a mandate to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of international law. human rights and international humanitarian law committed in Libya since 2016.
Meeting with victims
During a visit from 23 to 26 January in Tripoli, the experts of the fact-finding mission met victims and representatives of victims who testified about extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, human trafficking, internal displacement, the existence of mass graves and morgues containing corpses to which families do not have access.
Many victims and their representatives came from Benghazi, Sirte, Murzuk, Sebha and Misrata to meet the mission. The mission was to travel to Sabha to meet the victims, but this was not allowed by the local authorities despite repeated requests.
The experts regretted that they were unable to meet with the Attorney General to receive information on the numerous cases recounted by the victims which fall within his investigative mandate.
“State authorities we met told us about their efforts to strengthen the rule of law, but these efforts have failed to bring justice to the victims and their families,” said Tracy Robinson. “You could see the deep loss when the victims spoke to us. Their anxious desire for justice has not been satisfied, in many cases for years”.
Concern over the fate of Iftikhar Boudra
Experts also regretted that authorities have not granted access to prisons and detention centers across the country, despite repeated requests.
Chaloka Beyani said that "arbitrary detention in Libya has become a pervasive tool of repression and political control, which explains why thousands of people are deprived of their liberty, often in poor conditions, without due process or access to Justice ".
During the fact-finding mission's meetings with officials, the experts joined the call of other UN experts for the immediate release of Iftikhar Boudra, who was detained in Benghazi four years ago following critical comments she made on social media about militarization in the East. Ms Boudra is said to be in critical condition and her family say they have not been allowed to visit her for eight months.
Distributed by African Media Agency for UN Info
