HRS and FEMED hold a series of meetings with special rapporteurs and working groups of the Human Rights Council in Geneva

A team from the Human Rights Solidarity Organization and a team from the Euro-Mediterranean Federation of Victims of Enforced Disappearances held a series of meetings with several special rapporteurs and working groups of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, to follow up on cases of human rights violations in Libya and the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The meetings began on Thursday, May 11, with the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, where issues related to truth and justice regarding gross violations of human rights in North Africa and the Middle East were discussed.

The Group also held a meeting with the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, followed by another interview with the team of the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and ended today with a meeting with the Office of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls in which they discussed the causes of violence and its consequences.

The Group continued its campaign of meetings on the second day, where the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and met with several members of international missions, ending its visit to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with a meeting with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

In these meetings, the team briefed the human rights situation in Libya and the violations it monitored and discussed the individual complaints it submitted to the special mechanisms, the most important of which were the files of complaints of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and public complaints, foremost of which is the mass murder in Abu Salim prison.

The Solidarity Group raised the issue of the Abu Salim prison massacre with the expert from the Office of the Special Rapporteur, and the discussion concluded that the failure of the Libyan authorities to uncover the truth and hold perpetrators accountable falls within the mandate of the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.

During the meeting, it was agreed that HRS would submit a detailed report on the case addressed to the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, the Office of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Bureau of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

In the meeting with the team of the Office of the Special Rapporteur on “Violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences”, the team of the Office it was stated that the report of the field visit of the Special Rapporteur Reem Al-Salem to Libya in December 2022 would be published this month and will be discussed during the 53rd regular session of the Human Rights Council next month.

At the end of the meeting, the Bureau of the Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls and the Bureau of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances agreed to hold continuation remote meetings using the Internet to continue the discussion on issues that not have time to be discussed during the Geneva meeting