​Address by Ms. Kate Gilmore United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights

Geneva, 22 March 2017

Mr. President, Excellencies, colleagues and friends,

It is my duty to update you on the situation of human rights in Libya and I have the honour to introduce, on behalf of the High Commissioner, a report prepared pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/27.

The present report reiterates the recommendations arising from the OHCHR Libya investigation issued last year, and further recognises this Council’s role in complementing and strengthening accountability efforts for Libya.

t the outset, please allow me to convey the High Commissioner’s deep appreciation of the invitation that President Serraj has extended to him to visit Libya. The High Commissioner discussed this with President Serraj earlier this month and he welcomed the President’s personal expression of commitment to international human rights and humanitarian law, including in the context of military operations against groups pledging allegiance to the so-called Islamic State in Sirte.

Excellencies,

When we last updated you in September this year, our advice was that the human rights situation had not improved.

egretfully, some six months later our message is the same – no gains, no change for the better, no human rights relief for the people of Libya.

A count of those who have suffered the most tells at least part of the story.

In 2016, attacks with imprecise weapons waged in populated areas across Libya killed 253 civilians and injured another 344. At least 151 men, 34 women and 51 children were killed, while the sex and/or age of 77 other victims could not be determined. These victims - killed mainly by airstrikes, gunfire, or shelling - represent only those cases which UNSMIL could document.

Many of these attacks are the result of a seeming disregard for civilian casualties. In June, for example, a children’s playground in Derna was attacked.  Three children were injured.  In September, an airstrike hit a water park in Jufra killed six women and a child. In October, a playground in Benina neighbourhood was hit with five boys were injured. In the same month, in Al-Fallah, a woman was killed and three children injured when a camp for internally displaced persons camp was shelled. The same camp was hit again in January, leading to the death of two women and a man.

Civilian objects, such as hospitals, were not spared. UNSMIL documented seven attacks on medical facilities last year, in Derna, Benghazi, Tripoli, Zawiya and Sabha. In November, a car exploded outside Al-Jala hospital which itself is located near a school. The day’s lessons had ended and everybody was leaving for home when the deadly strike was made. Two children - a brother and a sister - were killed and eight were injured.

The proliferation of armed groups throughout the country has led to a situation in which human rights violations and abuses are rampant. Armed groups target civilians, including children, abducting, torturing and killing them, on the basis of family links, origin, political affiliation, or for ransom. In November, a four-year-old girl who had been abducted by armed men was found dead in the al-Ma’mura neighbourbood of Warfashana. She had been strangled, following a ransom demand that could not be met. One month later, a 15-year-old boy was abducted while waiting to take the bus to school. His whereabouts remain unknown.

In the absence of fully functioning institutions, impunity prevails for such acts.

Violence and discrimination against women, in particular by armed groups, has also been reported. In December, in Tripoli, a woman was gang raped by members of an armed group. A video of the attack was widely circulated provoking public demonstrations calling for an investigation, the disbandment of all armed groups, and the reestablishment of the rule of law.

Just last month, the Chief of Staff of the Libyan National Army group and the Military Governor of eastern Libya announced a decree that women under the age of 60 could not travel internationally without a male guardian. After public objections, this was replaced by a decree stating that all men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 needed security clearance before being able to travel internationally. This broad and sweeping decision grossly violates the right to freedom of movement and the principle of non-discrimination, as well as the principles enshrined in the Libyan Constitutional Declaration and the Libyan Political Agreement, and should be urgently withdrawn.

UNSMIL continues to receive numerous and consistent reports suggesting a pattern of migrant women being subjected to sexual violence whilst detained, including in official detention centres. Many survivors have described how they were forcibly taken away by armed men from their cells and repeatedly raped over consecutive days.

As described in the OHCHR and UNSMIL report released in December last year, migrants continue to be held arbitrarily in Libya for indefinite periods, with no due process guarantees, legal recourse, or review. They commonly face inhuman conditions and horrific abuse.

Often it is armed brigades who exert direct or indirect control over these centers, including official detention centres, meaning there is no effective protection against abuse. These are often warehouses with migrants held in the dark; struggling to breathe properly due to a lack of ventilation, unable to lie down easily due to overcrowding; and facing scabies, lice, and fleas due to unhygienic conditions.

Migrants are often tortured, extorted, and forced to work for no pay – with little access to sanitation facilities, food, water, or medical care. Many are reluctant to even speak about their experience. One individual interviewed by UNSMIL staff in Italy noted “We don’t want to remember it, we turned the page of Libya”.

Excellencies,

We are also closely following the situation of a group of 200 women and children migrants who had been captured by fighters who had pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State in Sirte and managed to escape.  We understand that these women and children were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Many are currently held in the al-Jawiya Prison in Misrata, in substandard conditions without access to legal assistance, adequate healthcare, food, water or medicine, and are guarded by men.  I must reiterate the recent call of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict that those who escape from ISIL captivity be receieved as victims of terrorism and be provided with support and protection.

I also urge the Government of Libya to end the practice of arbitrarily detaining migrants, to introduce safe and community-based alternatives to detention which respect the right to liberty and, in the meantime, to undertake all efforts to improve conditions in detention and ensure the protection of migrants from abuse. I also call upon the European Union to ensure that its training and support to the Libyan Coastguard is undertaken through careful vetting, accompanied by comprehensive efforts to protect the human rights of migrants, including in combination with a mechanism allowing for the monitoring of what happens after interception. At present, migrants intercepted by the Coastguard are usually transported to official detention centres where they are exposed to abuses and inhuman conditions. I therefore urge the European Union to further enhance its support to end the detention of migrants, and its contribution to addressing conditions and abuses in detention.

Excellencies,

As we discuss Libya here today, the human rights division of UNSMIIL, with the support of OHCHR, continues to monitor and report on the human rights situation. The establishment of a focal point for human rights and rule of law issues within the Presidency Council would further facilitate such work and would further provide a senior point of reference with respect to the implementation of recommendations of the international human rights mechanisms.

The human rights division has been called upon to provide advice on issues integral to the sustainable re-establishment of the rule of law - such as on the vetting of applicants or on the provision of training to the newly established Presidential Guard. The division will also further develop its work on profiling, including with a view to supporting the full implementation of the human rights due diligence policy on United Nations support to non-United Nations security forces.

Excellencies,

The power, reach, and influence of unaccountable unscrupulous armed groups in Libya is more than frightening.  Their actions negate the impact of measures of many aimed at supporting Libya and undermines the rebuilding of its institutions, including on rule of law and human rights.

Throughout this briefing, I have described how such armed groups, some of whom act on behalf of the State, continue to commit grave violations and abuses of human rights across Libya with impunity. Those responsible are criminally liable, including potentially before the International Criminal Court. In this regard, I welcome the recent statement by the Prosecutor of the Court informing that Libya is considered as a priority this year.

I also believe it is imperative that the Government move towards the establishment of a professional army and police and other security forces through fair and transparent vetting; that it prioritize demobilization; and it implement the rule of law provisions of the Libyan Political Agreement.

I would like to conclude by underscoring the High Commissioner’s commitment towards supporting such efforts, notably through the human rights division of UNSMIL.

Thank you.