United Nations Finds Libya Responsible for Torture and Orders Compensation to Victim’s Family
In its second landmark decision against Libya this year, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has found Libya responsible for torture and other serious human rights violations. The decision in the case of El Hassy v. Libya, Communication No. 1422/2005 was taken during the 91st Session of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. It concerns Mr. El Hassy who was arbitrarily arrested in 1995, detained in prolonged incommunicado detention at the Abu Salim prison outside Tripoli, tortured and then disappeared. Mr. El Hassy’s fate or whereabouts still remain unknown more than 11 years after he was first taken into custody by the Libyan authorities. Although it is probable that he was summarily executed in the notorious prison massacre which occurred at Abu Salim in the summer of 1996, the Libyan authorities have refused acknowledge this fact. Mr. El Hassy’s brother, who brought the complaint, is represented by the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and Human Rights Solidarity.
In its decision, the Human Rights Committee found that the treatment of Mr. El Hassy including his torture and disappearance amounted to violations of the prohibition of torture under Article 7 of the ICCPR and the right of detainees to be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person under Article 10; that his arrest in the absence of a warrant and detention without access to an attorney or any kind of legal process constituted a violation of Article 9; and finally that the Libyan authorities’ failure to account for his fate, or provide his family members with a remedy amounted to violations of Article 2(3). Significantly, in finding that Mr. El Hassy’s disappearance constituted a breach of Article 7, the Committee relied on the definition of “disappearance” in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Art. 7, paragraph 2(i)).[1]
The decision of the Human Rights Committee in this case is of particular significance because it is one of the first decisions by an international human rights body that directly concerns the notorious massacre at the Abu Salim prison in 1996 in which scores, possibly hundreds of political prisoners where arbitrarily executed by the Libyan authorities. Although Colonel al-Gaddafi acknowledged for the first time in 2004 that the families of the victims have a right to know what happened to their relatives, the Libyan authorities have taken no meaningful steps to investigate or account for the killings and no legal remedies have been provided the victims and their families.
In its recent Concluding Observations on Libya’s fourth periodic report issued on 30 October 2007, the Human Rights Committee reiterated its demands that Libya conduct and official inquiry into the events in Abu Salim and that a full report be made publicly available as soon as possible.
The Human Rights Committee has ordered the Libyan authorities to provide Mr. El Hassy’s family with an effective remedy, including a thorough and effective investigation into his disappearance, or his immediate release if he is still alive, and adequate compensation to his family. Furthermore, the Libyan authorities must prosecute and punish those found responsible for these human rights violations and to take measures to prevent similar violations in the future. The Human Rights Committee has given Libya 180 days to provide the Committee with an account of the measures it has taken to give effect to its ruling.
The Gaddafi regime has never given a complete and public account of the events at the Abu Salim prison in 1996 and has not provided the relatives of the victims an explanation of the whereabouts or fate of their next of kin. The relatives of the disappeared continue – more than 11 years after the events in question – struggling with the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to their loved ones or whether they are still alive. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and Human Rights Solidarity call upon the Libyan authorities to take the occasion of this decision to start an effective and independent official inquiry into the events at Abu Salim, to take steps to inform victims’ relatives of the manner and cause of death of their relatives, indicate the location of their remains and grant as full a compensation as possible to the relatives of the victims. If Libya ever wants to be welcomed to the international community as a full fledged member, it needs to own up to and redress the serious human rights abuses of the past.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a body of 18 independent experts elected by States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR). The Human Rights Committee is charged with monitoring States parties’ compliance with the ICCPR, an instrument which constitutes the cornerstone of international human rights protection. Under the First Optional Protocol, the Committee may consider complaints by individuals concerning violations of their civil and political rights by a State Party. Libya ratified the Optional Protocol on the 16 May 1989 and is consequently under an international legal obligation to abide by the decisions of the Human Rights Committee in individual cases.
For further information please contact:
Boris Wijkström
OMCT Legal Advisor
bw@omct.org
Giumma El Omami
Secretary of Human Rights Solidarity
admin@lhrs.ch
+41 79 380 6789
[1] « Enforced disappearance of persons means the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protextion of the law for a prolonged period of time. » Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 7, paragraph 2(i)