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Libyan human rights organizations condemn the forced eviction of Tawerghans and call on the Libyan authorities for a permanent solution
StatementsLibyan human rights organizations condemn the forced eviction of Tawerghans and call on the Libyan authorities for a permanent solution that ends their suffering and includes reparation and accountability for the violations committed against them
Press release
The undersigned Libyan human rights organizations express their strong condemnation and denunciation of the forced eviction operation carried out by the Stabilization Support Agency on May 3 against the displaced Tawerghans residing in Al Falah Camp 1 and Al Falah Camp 2 in the center of the capital, Tripoli. This resulted in the displacement of about 530 families, as the first camp was inhabited by about 360 families and the second by about 170 families. The organizations condemn the continuation of the systematic unfair policies and practices that exacerbate the suffering of the displaced Tawerghans, which began in 2011, due to the absence of the political will of all successive governments since the revolution to stop the continuous displacement and the forced movement of citizens throughout the country and hold the perpetrators of grave violations against the displaced accountable.
On the first of May, six cars bearing the emblem of the Stabilization Support Agency stormed the two camps at ten o’clock in the evening, and the staff of the agency asked the people to leave the two camps and evacuate them no later than May 3 (the second day of Eid al-Fitr). They warn the people of the consequences if they did not comply with these orders. On May 2, the Stabilization Support Agency sent some of its men to the two camps to make sure that the people began preparing to carry out an evacuation. On the day specified for the forced eviction, Stabilization Support Vehicles, accompanied by a Central Security vehicle, were stationed at the entrance to the two camps. Cars and residents were prevented from entering, and the residents were forced to leave. 38 families out of a total of 530 have returned to Tawergha, while the rest of the families are still displaced in the suburbs of Tripoli, Tarhuna, Bani Walid, Souk al-Sabt, Souk al-Ahad, al-Sbai’a and Wadi al-Rabi’.
Moreover, the Attorney General had issued a decision on March 7, 2022, to vacate the houses of the Islamic Call Society inhabited by displaced people from Tawergha, no later than March 26, 2022. But as a result of the negotiations conducted by the displaced people residing in those housing with the Board of Directors of the Islamic Call Society, the period of forced eviction has been extended to the first week after Eid al-Fitr. The deadline has expired, while the people threatened with forced eviction are still negotiating in order to reach an agreement that will save them from the fate of homelessness.
The number of displaced people in Libya is about 278,000 people, including about 40,000 people from Tawergha, whose tragedy began in 2011. Despite the signing of an agreement for return and compensation in March 2017, and the Presidential Council’s issuance in December of the same year of a decision to begin the return of the displaced people to their city starting from the beginning of February 2018, the people who tried to return to their homes at that time were prevented from doing so. More than 5 years after the return and compensation agreement, and 4 years after the decision to open the city for return, the people have not received compensation, and the city still lacks the basic services that must be provided to enable the residents to live in it. This makes returning to Tawergha a bitter option for the people who want to return home but are unable to do so due to the authorities’ reluctance to provide basic services in the city.
In its report issued in October 2021, the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya confirmed that the conditions for return to Tawergha are “not fulfilled,” and that the internally displaced Tawerghans face difficult living conditions in the camps, and do not have access to adequate services such as medical care, food, water, and sanitation. Children’s education opportunities are limited, as well as their exposure to violence which is encouraged by the state’s silence and acceptance of violations against the residents of Tawergha and its failure to take the necessary measures to compensate them and return them safely to their homes. The mission also considered that the residents of Tawerghans are subjected to persecution because acts of violence are practiced against them motivated by discrimination, and the mission reached a disturbing conclusion, as it believes that “Libya may be unable to guarantee the rights of internally displaced persons from Tawerghans under international law.”
The undersigned organizations, while calling on the Libyan authorities to stop the forced evictions of the people of Tawerghans in all the camps and the places they live in far from their homes, stress the need to take the necessary measures to end the collective punishment against the Tawerghans, rebuild their city, provide all basic services in it, and facilitate the means for safe voluntary return and reparation for damage caused by their displacement. It also calls on the authorities to prevent the security services and affiliated armed groups from raiding the camps for the displaced from Tawergha and stop frightening them or forcing them to leave. All basic services to camp residents must be provided and their life must be protected. In addition, all parties involved in violence against them must be face legal consequences and be accountable. It also calls on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya to put the crisis of the displaced from Tawergha on the agenda of discussions with the Libyan authorities and to ensure the seriousness of working to reach a permanent solution to it in the light of the above and in agreement with the people of Tawergha. Finally, the undersigned organizations call on the Libyan authorities, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and all humanitarian organizations operating in Libya to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Tawergha and all the displaced people in Libya.
Signing organizations:
Press release : Libya – Twenty one human rights organizations and 57 Libyan public figures call on the authorities to lift the arbitrary restrictions imposed by the Civil Society Commission on civil associations
StatementsMembers of the House of Representatives, the Constituent Assembly for the Drafting of the Constitution, the Forum for Political Dialogue, the State Council, former ministers, academics, writers, media professionals, lawyers, human rights defenders, and activists join Libyan human rights organizations in calling on the authorities to lift the arbitrary restrictions imposed by the Civil Society Commission on civil associations
April 19, 2022
Press release
Twenty one human rights organizations and 57 Libyan public figures issued a joint statement today to condemn the arbitrary measures recently announced by the Civil Society Commission in Tripoli, and to demand the lifting of arbitrary restrictions on freedom of civil organizations and associations. The signatories to the statement also called on the Libyan House of Representatives to quickly pass the draft law that was referred to it by human rights organizations and Libyan public figures in October 2021. The joint statement was issued today in a context in which Libya is witnessing an escalation of the repressive campaign against civil society organizations and human rights defenders, Including arbitrary detention, defamation and incitement through the media and social media communication sites, in addition to the authorities imposing arbitrary restrictions, through the Civil Society Commission (Tripoli), on the work and activities of organizations, in violation of the Libyan Constitutional Declaration and international standards for freedom of civil work and civil associations’ activities.
The statement bears the signature of human rights organizations, in addition to dozens of Libyan public figures from various backgrounds and experiences. This confirms that the issue of freedom of civil work and establishing full functioning civil associations is one of the important issues that are among the priorities of the Libyan people, and that it is inevitable to respect the desire and aspirations of the Libyans to build a state of rule of law and respect for human rights and democratic values. It is worth mentioning in this context that the statement bears the signatures of members of the House of Representatives, the Constituent Assembly of the Constitution, the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, the State Council, former ministers, academics, writers, media professionals, lawyers, human rights activists, and civil society activists. The full text of the statement and list of signatures can be found here.
Libyan organizations and personalities call on the government to guarantee constitutional rights to freedom of organizing associations and fulfil international obligations & calls on the legislator to expedite the issuance of the Associations Law submitted by human rights organizations
ID with Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
StatementsOur organizations welcome the historic report by the Special Rapporteur, which concludes that Israeli authorities are committing the crime of apartheid. His conclusion should serve as a wakeup call for governments throughout the world.
The Rapporteur’s study of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 reflects the larger reality of Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole. Since 1948, Israel has established and maintained an apartheid regime over the Palestinian people regardless of their geographic location, including Palestinian refugees denied their right of return to their homes, lands, and properties.
Double standards on this matter, including those propagated by Europe and the United States, severely undermine the effectiveness and legitimacy of international human rights and humanitarian legal standards.
For 73 years, the international community has enabled Israeli impunity and failed to hold Israeli perpetrators accountable for serious crimes against Palestinians. Accountability is long overdue.
With the start of the Nakba in 1948, 85% of the Palestinian people became refugees and internally displaced. The newly established State of Israel in historic Palestine installed a legal regime to institutionalize the dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian people. Following the military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip since 1967, Israel extended and operationalized its apartheid system in the oPt.
To maintain its apartheid regime, Israel resorts to a wide range of repressive policies to subjugate and control Palestinians, including arbitrary detention, excessive use of force, torture, collective punishment, persecution of human rights defenders and organizations, and structural violence preventing Palestinians’ full enjoyment of their human rights, amounting to inhuman acts of apartheid.
The Rapporteur identified the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people as a “central strategy” of Israeli apartheid. By dividing the Palestinian people into, at least, four separate geographic, legal, and political categories, Israel ensures that Palestinians cannot meet, group, live together, or exercise any collective rights, particularly their right to self-determination.
We reiterate the need for effective measures to dismantle Israeli apartheid, as put forward by the Special Rapporteur and civil society, including for UN member states to recognize Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian people, the reconstitution of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid, the ratification and/or implementation of the Convention against Apartheid and accountability at the International Criminal Court and in the courts of third states.
It is time to act to adopt effective measures, including sanctions, to end Israeli apartheid.
Signatories
Open Letter: Social media companies must take urgent action to protect Libyan human rights defenders
StatementsRespected Chairpersons and Staff at Facebook, Twitter and Telegram,
Front Line Defenders, an international human right organisation which works to provide hands-on practical support to human rights defenders at risk through its digital protection program, and the undersigned Libyan, regional and international civil society organisations urge you to take immediate action to help end an ongoing online defamation campaign targeting human rights defenders in Libya which is putting their lives in real danger. We specifically ask you to remove videos and all the hate speech and other defamatory content circulating on your platforms which Libyan authorities are using to defame peaceful human rights defenders and which has tangible harmful consequences on the lives of the people involved including physical violence, arbitrary detention and prosecution, intimidation, and discriminatory treatment. .
Furthermore, we urge you to conduct proper human rights due diligence to ensure that you are operating in line with your human rights duties and commitments and are not facilitating or contributing to human rights violations, in a Libyan context of near-total impunity where incidents of torture, ill-treatment, unlawful killings and other grave violations are widespread.
As documented by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), between November 2021 and March 2022, the Libyan Internal Security Services (ISS) affiliated with the Presidential Council of the Government of National Unity (GNU)1 arrested at least seven young men – activists, human rights defenders and individuals who had been active online discussing human rights concerns, including gender equality, freedom of belief, cultural rights and the rights of internally displaced people, migrants and refugee rights.
Following their detention, ISS published disturbing “confession” videos , in which the young men confess to being “atheist”, “secular”, “feminist”, or to having collaborated with international organisations to spread “immoral” values within Libyan society.
The content and appearance of these men in the videos indicate that they were most likely obtained under duress and that these individuals are being subjected to ill-treatment, possibly torture. The videos were widely shared on social media and have sparked hate speech, defamation and incitement to violence against a number of human rights defenders, feminists and other civil rights activists in the country. A list of names has been circulated with calls to arrest them and judge them under the Sharia’ (Islamic Law) that would for such cases apply the death penalty.
These recent incidents are part of a wider attack against freedom of speech and civil society work. The Tripoli Civil Society Commission, which is affiliated to the Government of National Accord (GNA)1 has led an online defamation campaign against Libyan civil society labeling its members as foreign or morally corrupt agents perverting Libyan society. Repeated violations against journalists, bloggers and individuals expressing their opinions online has further undermined freedom of expression. Between September and December 2021, at least 16 bloggers, journalists and media professionals were either arbitrarily arrested or disappeared.
Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and the commitments you have made to user safety and human rights, you have a responsibility to “avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities,” as well as to “seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.” Companies are thus expected to undertake adequate due diligence “in order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts.2
As social media companies, you have a responsibility to ensure that you are not contributing to a violent and dangerous campaign, utilizing your platforms to incite targeted violence against human rights defenders in Libya and place their lives at serious risk. It is of paramount urgency that Facebook, Twitter and Telegram immediately remove these videos and take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of your users in Libya.
Our organisations stand ready to assist with identifying the videos in question and the accounts on which they are hosted/shared.
Signatures:
Front Line Defenders (FLD)
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Iraqi Network for Social Media (INSM)
ARTICLE19
Access Now
Pen Iraq
Global Voices
Cairo Institute for Human rights Studies
Independent Organization for Human Rights
Youth for Tawergha
Aman organization against racial discrimination
Defender Center for Human Rights
Libya Organization for legal aid
Belady Foundation
Aswat Libya Network
Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press
Adala for All
1The Civil Society Commission is currently divided between two institutions that issue conflicting decisions. The Board of Directors of the Commission is formed by the decision of the interim government in 2016 and has 27 branches to which commit to the rule of the interim government in the east, except the Tripoli branch. On August 8, 2018, a decision was issued by the interim government to remove the chairman of the Civil Society Commission, Abeer Amnina, from her post, and to appoint Ali Al-Obeidi instead. This was after the Presidential Council issued decision No. 160 of 2018 on August 2, to form the Board of Directors of the Commission.
Human rights defenders are not society’s opponents. Libyan authorities should respect human rights and release arbitrarily detained activists
StatementsPress release
March 22, 2022
The Libyan human rights organizations signatory to this statement (In addition to 15 Libyan Human Rights groups are afraid of revealing their names for security reasons) express their deep concern about the systematic campaign launched by some security services in Libya against human rights defenders, which included, during the recent period, the arbitrary detention of at least seven activists, in addition to incitement and defamation against them on social media. The undersigned organizations condemn the security services’ grave violations of the procedural rules of the Libyan criminal law, by broadcasting videos of “confessions” of some detainees. This broadcasting is certainly beyond the role assigned to these security services. The undersigned organizations consider the detention of these activists to be arbitrary because it resulted from the detainees’ exercise of basic rights stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This detention is among the cases considered by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention as an arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Accordingly, the Libyan human rights organizations are calling for their immediate release and an end to the smear campaign against them.
Since last year, the undersigned organizations have been following the transformation of social media into an arena for targeting human rights defenders, especially women. Due to the lack of political will of any of the successive governments after the revolution to remove arbitrary legal restrictions that contradict international standards for freedom of civil work and activism, the civil society in Libya is suffering from legal obstacles that restrict its freedom of expression and gathering.
In an alarming escalation, the security services arrested a young activist last December, and posted a video of his “confession” on Facebook. In mid-February, the undersigned organizations documented that security services arrested three activists after they participated in a discussion of a human rights issues on the Clubhouse application. About a week after their arrest, one of them appeared to give his “confession” in a video posted on a security service’s Facebook and Twitter pages. On February 25, the same security service arrested a young activist working for an international organization concerned with refugee situations, while he was at Maitika Airport on his way to participate in a training. On March 8, the security apparatus displayed on its Facebook page a video clip of the arrested activist giving his “confessions” about his activities in civil society and his relations with several activists affiliated with local and international organizations. On March 9, a security agency arrested a sixth activist. On March 15, the agency broadcast a video clip of the “confessions” of the sixth detainee regarding his activities and his relations with some activists, including one of the detainees referred to above.
In the wake of this systematic campaign aimed at intimidating independent voices in Libyan civil society, The Tanweer Movement, a Libyan civil group, announced that it had suspended its activities permanently. While this group indicated in their last statements that Libya lacks a margin of freedom that allows discussion of cultural and intellectual issues, it demanded the authorities to stop prosecuting its members and to release those arrested. It is worth noting that it is not the first time that a Libyan civil organization has had to stop its activities for fear of the safety of its members. In December 2020, the Tanarout Group for Libyan Creativity announced the suspension of its cultural activities until further notice, after being subjected to a smear campaign by the General Authority for Endowments and Islamic Affairs.
The undersigned organizations affirm that at a time when Libya is facing the threat of renewed armed conflict, and in light of the exacerbation of grievances and the widespread phenomenon of impunity for committing human rights violations, there is an urgent need for a vital and effective role for civil society and human rights defenders, in order to support societal and political dialogue and national reconciliation efforts, as well as to provide the necessary support for holding transparent and fair general elections. This cannot be achieved if the authorities continue to deal with civil society as an adversary that must be subjugated and eliminated, instead of providing a legal environment that supports the prosperity of civil society, which ultimately leads to achieving the desired peace and stability in Libya.
Finally, the undersigned organizations denounce the failure of the various Libyan authorities to respond to their demands to release detainees, activate the law, and respect the article 14 of the interim constitutional declaration and the international agreements signed by Libya. These organizations reiterate the demand for the immediate release of these detainees, and to stop defaming them and pitting society against them and against human rights defenders in general.
Signatory organizations:
Statement on International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
StatementsOn this occasion, the undersigned organizations renew their repeated calls to oppose and combat racial discrimination in Libya and the world at large.
The decline in equality in Libya must be taken seriously to secure a safe country and reassure all Libyans that they are equal despite the differences between them. Based on the interim constitutional declaration and all international conventions, especially the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the undersigned organizations emphasize the necessity of drafting a non-discriminatory constitutional document.
Libya still suffers from multiple forms described as discrimination and racism towards some segments of Libyan society. Many Libyans from the Tuareg and others have been denied access to the national number and the right to citizenship due to a delay in administrative procedures that exceeded fifty years while they are waiting. They were given instead administrative numbers and deprived of obtaining passports because they do not have a national number. Thus, many of them are deprived of treatment abroad, especially children, as children with chronic diseases who hold administrative numbers are deprived of the services provided by the Ministry of Health for treatment abroad, and the children of Libyan women married to foreigners are still deprived of the right to citizenship in Libya, even though they were born in Libya and their mothers are Libyans. These groups are subject to discrimination in transactions and deprivation of the right to education, movement and legal recognition of them, and some executive agencies, especially the security ones, still practice discrimination and incitement against immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers by treating them as criminals.
We recall that the United Nations celebrates this occasion this year under the slogan “Voices for Action against Racism”, and this year’s celebration aims in particular to highlight the importance of enhancing public participation and meaningful and safe representation in all areas of decision-making to prevent and combat racial discrimination, and to underscore the importance of fully respecting the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and the protection of civic space; Recognizing the contributions and challenges faced by individuals and organizations against racial discrimination.
On the anniversary of this day, the signatory organizations to this statement recommend the local and governmental authorities to:
Organizations that signed the statement: