Libya condemned over suppression of fundamental freedoms News
Luca Galuzzi (Lucag), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Libya condemned over suppression of fundamental freedoms

Libya’s judicial authorities are cracking down on fundamental freedoms, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced on Monday, in their report “Injustice By Design: Need for Comprehensive Justice Reform in Libya.”

HRW stated that the North African country is reluctant to investigate serious human rights violations and international crimes, “the justice system is marked by serious due process violations” at both civil and military levels. The organization further stressed that Libya’s Penal Code is out of date and does not address international crimes. Its laws from 1976 to 2011, during the leadership of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, are oppressive and breach international law, allowing arbitrary detention and attacks on civil society.

HRW suggested that Libyan authorities respect fair trial standards as well as reform legislation and the judiciary due to violations of due process. Legal professionals, witnesses, and defendants encounter harassment and intimidation, migrants, asylum seekers, and nationals in detention centres face inhumane conditions, and civilians are arbitrarily detained.

Libyan legislators must also repeal articles of the Penal Code that do not align with international human rights obligations. The Penal Code carries harsh punishments. Article 207, penalizing “Promotion of Any Act against the System of the State,” states that the punishment is death for anyone who circulates views or principles that aim to “overthrow the political, social, or economic order of the State, or to destroy the fundamental structures of the social order.”

The rights group recommended that authorities ratify the Convention against Torture and ensure that its definition of torture complies with the convention. Article 1 prohibits severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 8,000 prisoners in Libya are subjected to torture while detained.

Since the overthrow and assassination of Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been torn by conflict, and has politically split since 2014, with two opposing governments contending for power. Led by Dbeibah, the Government of National Unity (GNU) controls Tripoli in the west, while the House of Representatives (HoR), headed by Prime Minister Ossama Hammad, controls Tobruk in the east, with support from the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Open war between the rival regimes ended with a 2020 ceasefire, but there has been a recent increase in militia violence.

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