Banjul, The Gambia — The Committee for Justice welcomes the adoption of Resolution CRES/003/05/26 on the Situation of Human Rights in Libya, which CFJ submitted during the NGO Forum preceding the 87th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, held in Banjul, The Gambia.
The resolution reflects grave concern over the continued deterioration of the human rights situation in Libya, including the fragmentation of State authority, the persistence of armed group control, and the failure of de jure and de facto authorities to prevent violations, ensure accountability, and guarantee effective judicial oversight.
The adopted resolution draws attention to continued patterns of arbitrary arrest, deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, deaths in custody, extrajudicial killings, and the continued detention of individuals despite judicial or prosecutorial release orders. It also highlights serious violations against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, particularly Sudanese nationals, including trafficking, secret detention, extortion, forced labour, violence, deaths at sea, and reports of mass graves and clandestine detention sites.
The resolution further raises alarm over the shrinking civic space in Libya, including reprisals against human rights defenders, activists, artists, journalists, civil society actors, and families of disappeared persons who continue to seek truth, justice, and accountability.
Through the resolution, the NGO Forum calls on Libyan authorities, including all de facto authorities exercising control over territory, detention facilities, or security bodies, to end arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, disclose the fate and whereabouts of disappeared persons, ensure that all detainees are held only in official places of detention under judicial oversight, and enforce judicial and prosecutorial release orders without delay.
The resolution also calls for prompt, independent, impartial, and effective investigations into torture, deaths in custody, extrajudicial killings, abductions, trafficking, and secret detention, and urges the closure of secret and unofficial detention sites, including those used to hold migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
CFJ considers the adoption of this resolution an important step in strengthening regional scrutiny of Libya’s human rights crisis and reinforcing the role of the African Commission in monitoring compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“Libya’s human rights crisis cannot be addressed without accountability, effective judicial oversight, and protection for victims, migrants, detainees, and civil society actors,” CFJ said. “The adoption of this resolution sends an important message that violations committed by both de jure and de facto authorities must remain under sustained regional attention.”
CFJ calls on the African Commission and its relevant Special Mechanisms to maintain public monitoring of Libya’s compliance with the African Charter, including with regard to detention sites, enforced disappearance, migrant protection, non-enforcement of release orders, deaths in custody, and accountability measures.
