Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that Libya‘s Government of National Unity (GNU) and other authorities are cracking down on domestic and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Development Diaries reports that the GNI, in a March 2023 circular, said that domestic and foreign NGOs could continue operating only if they ‘correct their legal status’ in line with a 2001 Muammar Gaddafi-era law.
This statement came after months of increasing restrictions on civic group activities, including harassment, detention and prosecution of local staff members and obstacles for non-Libyans working in humanitarian, human rights, and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The policy renders all NGOs illegal, ultimately closing down Libya’s civic space entirely.
‘The authorities should instead be protecting that space by upholding the right to freedom of association’, the Associate Middle East and North Africa Director at HRW, Hanan Salah, noted.
NGOs have played a vital role, since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, in documenting human rights abuses, supporting the victims of international crimes, building social cohesion, and providing humanitarian assistance.
Human rights organisations have noted that CSOs in Libya are under attack, and are left in a situation of deep uncertainty, with little clarity on their legal status and no guarantee of security or protection.
In a 2022 report, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted a deepening crackdown on the civil society in Libya, where arbitrary arrests and a campaign of social media vilification were having a seriously chilling effect on human rights defenders.
Freedom House ranked the country as ‘not free’ in its Freedom in the World 2023 study of political rights and civil liberties, with the Maghreb nation earning ten points out of a potential 100.
Development Diaries calls on the Libyan authorities to stop the hostile campaign against Libyans exercising and defending their human rights.
Source: HRW
Photo source: Mahmud Turkia/AFP
