Repressive Laws, Harassment, Detentions Derail Organizations’ Work
- Libyan authorities have used a litany of overbroad and draconian legacy laws that violate international law to threaten, harass, arbitrarily detain, and attack civil society members and activists.
- Targeting nongovernmental organizations risks completely closing the space for free assembly and association in the country. Many activists are self-censoring or leaving the country.
- The authorities in both administrations vying for control of Libya should cease targeting civic groups and urgently adopt a civil society law consistent with international law.
Libyan authorities’ accelerating targeting and harassment of activists and members of non-governmental organizations risks completely closing the space for free assembly and association in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should cease targeting civic groups and urgently adopt a civil society law consistent with international law.
The authorities, backed by unaccountable militias and abusive internal security apparatuses, have used a litany of overbroad and draconian legacy laws that violate international law to frequently threaten, harass, arbitrarily detain, and attack civil society members and activists. One activist interviewed said he was tortured in detention. Since 2011, the authorities have passed decrees and regulations with onerous registration and administration requirements, preventing groups from establishing or maintaining a presence in the country. As a result, scores of activists have been driven out of the country, while those who remain have resorted to self-censorship and operating underground.
“Libyan authorities need to urgently end their repressive policies, which are crushing civic space in the country and have made it near-impossible for organizations to carry out their vital work,” said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Human rights groups and other civil society organizations should be able to operate without constantly having to look over their shoulder for fear of retaliation.”
Between April and October 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed in-person and by phone 17 members of Libyan civil society organizations and activists in Libya and Tunisia, and met with student union representatives and members of the National Council on General Liberties and Human Rights (NCGLHR). Only five civil society members agreed to meet in person in Libya, the rest asked for telephone interviews or refused to respond altogether for fear of harassment by the Tripoli Internal Security Agency. Human Rights Watch has anonymized all interviews with activists to prevent retribution.
Researchers also met with authorities in Tripoli, Zawiya, and Misrata, including with the justice minister, Commission for Civil Society, and with United Nations officials. Human Rights Watch did not obtain required permits to visit eastern Libya.
Two rival authorities are vying for control in Libya: the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), appointed as an interim authority through a UN-led consensus process, and affiliated armed groups control western Libya. Their rivals, the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) and affiliated security apparatuses and militias, control eastern and southern Libya. A civilian LAAF-affiliated administration is known as the “Libyan Government.”
Human Rights Watch wrote to the Justice and Foreign Ministries in Tripoli on December 2, 2024, regarding its findings, but did not receive a response.
The authorities in eastern and western Libya have used a slew of laws to repress civil society, including from the era of the former leader, Muammar Gaddafi. These include contested Law 19/2001 on the Reorganization of Nongovernmental Organizations, which greatly restricts civil society work and is considered as rescinded by some legal scholars because of the 2011 adoption of the Libyan Constituent Covenant by the National Transitional Council, as well as other laws governing expression and cybercrime and vaguely-worded laws on crimes against the state.
Libya’s Penal Code levies severe punishments, including the death penalty, for establishing “unlawful” associations, and stipulates prison terms for establishing or affiliating with international associations without prior “permission.” Regulations and decrees on organizing the work of nongovernmental organizations unjustifiably restrict and muzzle civic groups.
Libyan legislative authorities should reform penal code articles that undermine freedom of expression, association, and assembly and should guarantee the peaceful exercise of those rights, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should also promptly repeal the death penalty, including as a punishment for establishing or participating in unlawful organizations.
The authorities in both east and west of the country and armed groups have arrested and detained civil society members, often on bogus, politically-motivated charges. After the Tripoli Internal Security Agency – an armed group – arbitrarily arrested four members of the grass roots youth movement “Tanweer,” a court in Tripoli sentenced them in December 2022 to three-year prison sentences with hard labor for “atheism, agnosticism, being feminist and infidels.” Two activists, who did not wish to be named for fear of repercussions, said that these arrests and prosecutions sent a chilling message to civil society. One of them ended a movement on women’s issues they had started because of the incident.
Libyan authorities, particularly in the west, have imposed overbroad and often unworkable conditions and requirements on nongovernmental groups – domestic and international – who wish to register and obtain work permits, hindering their work. The authorities have imposed burdensome approval requirements on activities as simple as holding seminars and workshops, while onerous financial reporting requirements are often impossible for small organizations to meet.
The establishment in 2018 of the Commission for Civil Society by the former Government of National Accord, tasked with registering and approving civic organizations and their activities, heralded further impediments to nongovernmental groups due to rivalries and inconsistencies between different branches. A process to unify the eastern and western branches started in 2023 and is still underway. Activists said the Commission had compelled some organizations to change their name or alter their objectives to obtain registration.
In the absence of a civil society organization law consistent with international law and best practices that guarantees the rights to freedom of association, assembly, and expression, Libyan authorities should scrap onerous restrictions on registration and allow for the free establishment of associations, Human Rights Watch said.
Under international human rights law, freedom of expression, assembly, and association are recognized as fundamental human rights, often overlapping, and essential to the effective functioning of a democratic society and the enjoyment of other individual rights.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Libya ratified in 1970, states that no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of the rights to assembly and association “other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (“ordre public”), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”
The UN Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the Covenant, has stressed that a government should be no more restrictive than is absolutely required for any limitation on freedom of association, the detriment suffered, and the duration of the limitation. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which Libya ratified in 1963, states that “every individual shall have the right to free association provided that he abides by the law.”
“Libyan authorities have used a slew of repressive laws to target civic groups while putting up obstacle after obstacle to prevent them from operating legally,” Salah said. “Civic groups cannot function effectively and safely as long as they remain in legal limbo, working in secrecy or constant fear of threat, attack, or arrest.”
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