NEW YORK: A Jordanian human rights expert working for the United Nations has called on Libyan authorities to take urgent action to protect women and girls in the country from what she called a “continuous cycle of rampant violence and mistreatment,” compounded by “complete impunity” for those responsible.
The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Reem Alsalem, said on Friday that she was “deeply disturbed at the widespread, systematic, and grave levels of violence faced by Libyan women and children, including girls.
“Femicide, or the killing of women on multiple grounds, is rife; as are acts of physical, economic, political and domestic violence in the private and public sphere,” Alsalem said in a statement.
Her comments followed an eight-day visit to the North African country during which, she said, she also received reports detailing “profoundly discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment endured by non-Libyan women and children, including girls, as well as horrific levels of torture, sexual violence, abduction for ransom, detention, trafficking in persons, forced labor and unlawful killings.”
While she described the invitation from the Government of National Unity to visit the country as encouraging, Alsalem lamented the many obstacles that she encountered on her trip, including delays in entering the country, her inability to visit prisons and detention centers where women and girls are being held, and being prevented from traveling to the east of the country to conduct visits she had planned prior to her arrival.
Special rapporteurs are independent experts who serve in individual capacities on a voluntary basis at the UN’s Human Rights Council. They are not staff members of the UN and are not paid for their work.
Alsalem put the lack of legal retribution for crimes committed against women and girls down to the “political deadlock, insecurity, instability, governance and rule-of-law challenges and problematic legal frameworks that are not in line with Libya’s international human rights obligations.”
The proliferation of armed groups and weaponry in Libya is feeding complex cross-border criminal enterprises, she added, and making an already “appalling situation” worse. She also expressed concern about the “increasing restrictions” imposed on civil society and international organizations trying to operate in Libya.
Alsalem called for the protection of women and girls to be a priority in “all dealings” with Libyan authorities. To better tackle the issue, she said the authorities must prioritize legislative reforms, including the adoption of a 2021 Draft Law on violence against women. She also recommended that they end impunity and boost support for governmental institutions and women’s organizations, and for the economic empowerment and political participation of women.
The UN expert also called for an end to “the pushback of migrants and refugees at sea to Libya, where their lives are at risk.”
She added: “Opportunities for access to fair asylum procedures, evacuation opportunities and voluntary returns to their countries must be scaled up.”
Violence against women and girls in Libya must end: UN expert
https://arab.news/zwgvt
Violence against women and girls in Libya must end: UN expert
- Reem Alsalem spoke of widespread systematic violence against women and girls
- The special rapporteur also urged Libyan authorities to punish those responsible
In major policy shift on Syria, UN Security Council lifts sanctions on Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
- Move reflects evolving Syrian political landscape in the post-Assad era, ending a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Friday removed Al-Nusra Front, the militant group that evolved into Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, from its so-called Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.
The move signals a major shift in international policy toward Syria’s evolving political landscape in the post-Assad era, and ends a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo that have been imposed on the group since 2014.
Al-Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham were led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammed Al-Julani, who is now Syria’s president and was a leading figure in the offensive that toppled the Assad regime.
The consensus decision by the Security Council’s sanctions committee was announced by the UK, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month and was acting in the absence of the chair of the committee. It followed a request by the new Syrian authorities to delist “Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant.”
The decision means measures that were applied to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham under Security Council Resolution 2734, adopted in 2024, no longer apply. As a result, UN member states are notrequired to freeze the group’s funds, restrict the movement of its representatives, or block the supply or transfer of arms and related materiel.
Al-Nusra Front was added to the sanctions list for its ties to Al-Qaeda and involvement in the financing and execution of militant activities during the war in Syria. The UN initially continued to treat the group’s successor organization, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, as a listed alias.
Al-Sharaa has said the group severed all prior transnational jihadist links and is now solely focused on local Syrian matters.
