Human Rights Violations In Libya

Libya joined the United Nations on December 14, 1955. As a prominent member of such world organization, the idea is to encourage and try their best to uphold the rules and laws set in place, not just as an independent government but also as part of a union and collective of world leaders who seek the greater good of its people and of those who step foot on their land

Today, migrants are flocking to Libya from surrounding countries in North Africa, many in hopes of one day make it to Europe. Whole families arrive with their children. They come from places where they may have experienced different forms of abuse, persecution, or in many cases extreme poverty. It’s the best way to make it to the E.U. where they hope to gain asylum and the beginning road to a better future.

Although Libya is currently divided as two rival factions fight for control, crimes committed by the UN-backed Libyan counterpart have not gone unnoticed. Multiple sources have reported that crimes are being committed against migrants entering from surrounding countries who seek asylum while undergoing the legal process. These crimes include but are not limited to torture, sexual assault, and forced labor by prison guards, coast guards, and smugglers.

Many displaced women and children also flee surrounding countries in attempts to avoid an old cultural practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The World Health Organization estimates that more than 200 million girls and women today have undergone FGM and 3 million girls are at risk. Many flee their countries in attempts to avoid such practice. Like many others, they go North and into Libya. But many of these women face a harsher reality when they arrive. A refugee and FGM survivor named Aisha speaks about the harsh circumstances she was put through in a Libyan detention center in an article published by UN News called “I lost my dignity in Libya”. Here she speaks about how Libyan authorities beat, and raped her repeatedly, every day. In an audio recording in the same article, she speaks about how she saw many women killed who refused to be sold for sex.

Chances of going through Libya and not being subject to any form of abuse seems slim to none. No one is safe. As men may be exploited for their labor, and women for sex, it’s hard to believe that these type of primitive forms of abuse still happen in this day and age. All this puts Libyan authorities in direct violation of article 14 of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” which states the following….

• Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
• This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations