United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has condemned the widespread human rights violations and abuses committed on a massive scale and with impunity against migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, Türk also accused Libya's leaders of crushing political dissent in order to cling to power, leaving the country divided, and its people mired in crisis, poverty and misery.
The High Commissioner's report covers the human rights situation in Libya in the 12 months since April 2023. The report outlines "some disturbing developments," including an escalation in arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, and detention-related violations.
At the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner said the dehumanization of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers continues at the hands of both state and non-state actors, "often working in collusion."
His report documents a litany of horrors to which these vulnerable, desperate people are subjected, including "trafficking, torture, forced labor, extortion, starvation in intolerable conditions of detention," as well as mass expulsions and the sale of human beings, including children.
“Perpetrated at scale, with impunity,” Türk said. “And in March this year, a mass grave was discovered in southwestern Libya, containing at least 65 bodies presumed to be migrants.”
Following the discovery of the mass grave in March, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, “The circumstances of their death and nationalities remain unknown, but it is believed that they died in the process of being smuggled through the desert.”
The High Commissioner said: “As if this were not horrific enough, we are following up on reports of another mass grave recently discovered in the desert area at the Libyan-Tunisian border.”
Calling for investigations into these crimes, Türk said: “The responsibility for investigating these crimes falls squarely with the Libyan authorities. Reparations must be made, justice served, and nothing like this must ever happen again.”
He urged the Libyan authorities to adopt a comprehensive legal and policy framework on refugees and migrants in line with Libya's human rights and refugee obligations.
“I also call upon the international community to review and, if necessary, suspend cooperation on asylum and migration with those authorities involved in human rights violations,” the High Commissioner said.
During the reporting period, more than 2,400 people died or went missing while attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean. Of these, more than 1,300 set out from Libya.
“It is unconscionable that people in search of safety and dignity are suffering and dying in such unspeakable circumstances. I remind all States of the collective responsibility under international law to save lives and prevent deaths at sea,” Türk said.
He also pointed to the deaths of many migrants and refugees on the perilous routes across the Sahara to the coast.
According to a report released Friday by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), IOM and the Mixed Migration Center (MMC), thousands of refugees and migrants risking their lives on dangerous land routes across the African continent face extreme forms of violence, human rights abuses and exploitation.
With more people estimated to cross the Sahara Desert than the Mediterranean Sea, the report estimates that twice as many refugees and migrants die in the desert than at sea.
The horrific litany of risks and abuses reported by refugees and migrants as they pass through African countries include torture, physical violence, arbitrary detention, death, kidnapping for ransom, sexual exploitation, enslavement, human trafficking, organ harvesting, robbery, and collective expulsion.
The report also found that law enforcement authorities, criminal gangs, and other non-state actors such as insurgent groups and militias are the main perpetrators of violence.
In Geneva, meanwhile, Halima Ibrahim Abdel Rahman, Libya's Minister of Justice, did not respond to the High Commissioner's allegations of mass graves, nor to his allegations of the abhorrent treatment of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.
The minister said that some of the comments “are not in line with reality,” noting that “Libya gives special importance to the rights of refugees, although many of the refugees present in the territory of our country are there clandestinely.”
She also took umbrage at the High Commissioner’s charges that human rights violations and abuses against political dissidents are committed with impunity.
“What we see in the report does not fully reflect the efforts taken by the judiciary because we have prosecuted a high number of individuals accused of violating human rights while providing all legal guarantees” to people in “all places of detention, which are under the control of the Ministry of Justice,” she said.
In his report to the Human Rights Council, Türk delivered a stinging rebuke of the methods used by Libya's ruling elite to eviscerate its political opponents and remain in power.
"A stalled political process, hijacked by actors whose interests align in preserving the status quo, is decimating the hope of Libyans for a more stable, open and thriving society. Hopes they have had to carry for far too long, with little in return," he said.
“Targeting of political opponents and dissenting voices across the country has accelerated,” he said.
While the figure of those arrested is likely to be higher, he noted that his office has verified at least 60 cases of arbitrary detention of people who were “peacefully exercising their right to express political views.”
“In some cases, detention was followed by extrajudicial killing,” he said. “All of this is corrosive to the prospects for healing Libya’s fractured social and political environment, especially as grievances around detentions were at the heart of the 2011 uprising.”
He warned that lack of accountability for the violations and abuses committed 13 years ago “remains a serious obstacle to reconciliation today and serves as a driver of conflict.”
Libyan society remains divided 13 years after the overthrow of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi. The country is ruled by two rival administrations: the internationally recognized Government of National Unity, based in Tripoli, and the Government of National Stability, which holds power in the east. Libya has not held presidential or parliamentary elections since 2014.
The UN human rights chief urged Libya to restore the rule of law, including accountability for human rights violations, and to protect the peoples’ right to freedom of assembly and association.
“The stifling of civil society organizations, political activists, journalists and many others is fostering a climate of fear,” he said.
“It is also undermining the very foundations necessary for Libya’s democratic transition, emboldening the spoilers, and enabling security actors to perpetrate human rights violations with impunity,” he said.
Libya has experienced widespread armed conflict, civil unrest and political instability since 2011. While the humanitarian situation has improved since the October 2020 ceasefire agreement, people living in Libya continue to face the negative effects of political and economic instability and insecurity.
In addition, Libya remains a major transit country for refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Refugees and migrants in Libya face high levels of protection risks, including arbitrary detention, forced labor, violence, death, restrictions on movement, and gender-based violence, as well as limited access to housing and basic services.
On September 10 and 11, 2023, Storm Daniel swept across the country, causing heavy rains and flooding in several districts. The storm's impact was exacerbated by the collapse of two dams, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people in the city of Derna and a crisis for displaced people in the aftermath.
At the same time, humanitarian organizations in Libya increasingly face humanitarian access constraints that impede their work. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the majority of these restrictions are bureaucratic and administrative, severely limiting movement within the country, particularly in the east and west.
In addition, access to humanitarian aid for people in need has been restricted following a directive by the authorities to suspend assistance to migrants and refugees, a move with potentially serious humanitarian consequences amid increasing arrivals from Sudan.
Sudanese asylum-seekers and refugees continue to arrive in Libya in large numbers following the outbreak of war in Sudan in mid-April 2023. By the end of June 2024, UNHCR had registered a total of 40,878 Sudanese refugees, including more than 20,000 new arrivals from Sudan in Libya since the start of the war, mostly fleeing Darfur.
However, more than 95,000 people from Sudan are estimated to have sought refuge in Libya since April 2023.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: "Peace and stability in Libya go hand in hand with human rights," says High Commissioner, OHCHR, remarks by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at the 56th Session of the Human Rights Council, delivered July 9, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/07/peace-and-stability-libya-go-hand-hand-human-rights-says-high