In an open letter to the UN Human Rights council, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) has called on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to move the focus of the dialogue to issues of accountability and the fight against impunity.
Rather than attempting to bring an end to the crisis through the establishment of a unity government and other councils, attention instead should be paid to the basic principles and values that should underpin them, the group said.
Without establishing how newly created bodies will guarantee equality before the law, accountability and personal responsibility for all citizens, a democratic, peaceful and stable regime will never be established or sustained, NPWJ explained.
“UNSMIL’s proposals risk little more than ‘institutional engineering’ designed to provide a seat for every player in one of many committees or councils, without addressing any of the fundamental issues at the basis of the current political and humanitarian crisis,” the letter said.
In order for the mediation process to succeed, players must look at ways to strengthen the judicial system, providing both the “expectation and the reality” of individual accountability for current violations and a “comprehensive understanding” of the past, the group stressed.
At the 22nd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session in May 2015, UNSMIL will have the opportunity to refocus the talks on accountability and human rights, and NPJW has urged the mission to “act swiftly” to ratify the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and enact implementing legislation to incorporate Rome Statute crimes into Libyan law. They also want a moratorium on all executions imposed by military and civilian courts and ensure full compliance with the restrictions prescribed in Article 6 of the ICCPR, regularise the prison system and ensure that all prisons and detention facilities are managed and controlled by Libyan State authorities alone, address past and ongoing violations of women’s rights, and ensure the effective implementation of UNGA Resolutions 67/146 and 69/150 to ban female genital mutilation.
NPWJ is an international non-profit organisation founded by former Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino. It was born of a 1993 campaign of the Transnational Radical Party that works for the protection and promotion of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and international justice. The group has been working on the Libyan transition since early 2011in the framework of its project to support Libya’s democratic transition through justice and accountability.
