UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC - Press conference: UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar 20 March 2023

With us today, the three members of the International Fact Finding Mission on Libya, the independent Fact Finding Mission on Libya, who will present you their third report mandate as mandated by the Union Human Rights Council.

Members of the Fact Finding Mission will also present you the details, findings and violations committed in the Libyan town of Tahuna.

And these findings are available in the form of a conference room paper that was released today and published on the FFN's web page.

This conference room paper is being released in English and in Arabic.

You should have all received it in your mailbox.

If you didn't receive it, please let us know.

We'll be happy to resend it to you.

The members of the Fact Finding Mission will present these reports to the human to the UN Human Rights Council this coming Wednesday, July 6th in the morning during an interactive dialogue.

Also, members of the FFM in Libya are with us today.

Sitting next to me is Mr Mohammed Alja, the chair of the Fact Finding Mission, as well as Miss Tracy Robinson and Mr.

Shadow Caballani, the two other members of the FFM.

So here is how we'll proceed with this press conference.

First, Mr Mohammed Oja will make introductory remarks in Arabic with interpretation in English made available.

And after that, we will open the floor for questions.

For the journalists who are in the room, you can link the you can listen to the English Channel on Channel 2, and you also have the Arabic language on on Channel 7.

For those of you who are participating via Zoom, you can choose either the English or the Arabic language in the interpretation tab.

So without further ado, I give the floor to Mr Oja.

[Other language spoken]

First, I would like to welcome you all today to this press conference of the Independent Fact finding mission on Libya to present you the findings of our third reporter.

My name is Mohammed Al Jar, Chair of the and I'm present here with my colleagues, fellow human rights experts Tracy Robinson.

And the third report will be presented today about the situation.

I would like to say that this report would not be doing without all those during the reporting period from March.

[Other language spoken]

Of international.

We conducted.

And.

[Other language spoken]

Based on more than former and currently their relatives and inside their witnesses, the mission has to believe that crimes against humanity were perpetrated, such as ******, torture and trade, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts.

A number of detailed investigative work was conducted in Tatmana, documenting widespread and systematic perpetrations women as extermination, ******, torture and imprisonment amounting to crimes against humanity committed by.

The truth.

The continuous efforts by the Libyan authorities to exhume the mass graves in Tarahuna.

Reports show that over 200 individuals are still missing, causing untold anguish to their families who are entitled to know the truth about the fate of their life.

A conference room paper on Tarahuna has been prepared and the mission share its findings during the interactive dialogue of the Human Rights Council.

She was.

2 Special courts for cases of violence against too many children are being noted that children have been subjected to similar violations as adults, including summary executions, arbitrary detention, sexual and gender based violence and torture.

We have highlighted the restrictions and attacks on civil society organisations, on activists, human rights defenders and on journalists, human rights defenders and civil society activists and democratic society.

They are the corners down for a sustainable transition to democracy and Libya, therefore, the persecution of.

Protect those activists to ensure that freedoms are concerned in Libya.

We have also continued to document consistent patterns of the cross human rights violations against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers which still occur in Totally Human in Libya's migration detention centres, in trafficking hubs and in other contexts amounting to crimes against humanity.

Many of the violations documented by the Mission amount to international crimes, some of which are ongoing.

A confidential list of individual suspects will be compiled by the Mission.

This list will include the names of suspects, information about the potential suspect's position on role, and a summary of evidence compiled by the mission.

Libya remains without a permanent constitution and the legal framework capable of addressing the most serious unites violations, international crimes and its judiciary system remains vulnerable to attacks and interference inhale the effort of the tradition in trying to function independently and impartially despite the threats and intimidation.

The FFM, as part of its supporting authorities to strengthen the right, recommends the adoption of the Holistic National Human Rights Plan.

The Plan of Action is aimed at addressing all findings and recommendations from the Mission and other human rights bodies to ensure a sustainable transition to peace, democracy and full respect for human rights and to inclusive reconciliation.

Today, more than ever before, the Libyan people deserve a strong commitment from within and also from the international community to bring justice and the sustainable peace to their country.

This cannot be achieved without strong political will and unwavering support for democratic transition towards a state based on the rule of law and human rights.

Free and fair elections are essential to achieve this, and we are part of the international commitment to achieve justice and accountability in Libya.

Thank you and we are ready to answer any questions.

[Other language spoken]

So for those of you participating via Zoom, please raise your hand.

I will first look at questions from the room, please, MFRS from Reuters.

[Other language spoken]

I don't know if I could go with both of them now or one of the time.

[Other language spoken]

So you've identified these three possible mass grave sites.

Presumably the next step is to investigate there.

And I see that you've urged the Libyan authorities to do that.

To what extent does proceeding depend on their willingness to do that?

Could you do that yourselves, for example, if the permission doesn't come through or the cooperation doesn't come through from them?

And secondly, there's a resolution to renew your mandate for nine months currently on the table.

How confident are you that this resolution in its current format will give you sufficient flexibility and sufficient time to pursue the important work ahead?

[Other language spoken]

Tracy, thank you.

Thank you for the question.

I give the floor to Tracy to answer.

Thank you very much for your questions.

Zemo, you've noted that our mandate has officially ended and that there is a resolution relating to our extension, the kind of work which you are proposing.

I think the the question, the first question is can we go ahead and do the kind of investigations which are required if the state doesn't?

Generally the FFMS resources are fairly constrained.

We have had over the course of the last nine months of forensic Dr, which has facilitated in this year significant work which we were not able to do before.

But the kind of expansive investigations would probably have to involve the state.

And This is why we have in our report so clearly indicated that this is information that the state needs to act on.

It's the state's duty to act as well.

More investigations hopefully will continue in a renewed.

And your second question relates to whether the resolution in the current form will give us sufficient flexibility to work.

You know, we have learnt over the last two years that there are many challenges in conducting investigations, some of which are bureaucratic.

Even though we have access to Libya, as we've seen in the visit to Seba, there are challenges.

And so we would say that we would require the full commitment of the state to facilitate adequate investigations to complete the mandate in the required time.

We also have many, as you can see in the 2 reports, ongoing investigations which haven't been completed and places we haven't yet fully investigated and been to.

And that requires time and access, which have to be facilitated elsewhere.

So time is not content.

Time is not is not separated from some of the questions of access and bureaucracy, which are essential.

We don't control them on the FFM side, but we're certainly impacted by them.

[Other language spoken]

If I may ask in Arabic, can you hear me please?

[Other language spoken]

So I will ask in Arabic language please.

You mentioned that you're preparing confidential list.

I think, Mr Muhammad, you mentioned the confidential list with the names of the perpetrators of violations, their positions and their roles.

Why will this list confidential and to what judicial party will it be addressed or how will the perpetrators be prosecuted and held accountable?

Libya is party to the Rome statutes.

Will you submit your findings to the ICC?

Especially as you mentioned that there is the possibility that war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been perpetrated.

[Other language spoken]

Please, Chaluka, thank you very much for your question.

I might have missed part of it trying to find the translation.

As you know, the International Criminal Court is already involved in carrying out investigations in Libya.

At this point in time, it has got its own jurisdiction and mandate under the Rome Statute.

It's investigating the most serious of crimes that have been committed or the evidence that will point out the Commission of such crimes.

Our mandate from the Human Rights Council is to preserve an evidence that we find and to hand it over to the Human Rights Council and it's other processes associated to the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.

Now whether eventually that will go to the ICC is not within our mandate, you know, to to decide.

It will be decided by the Human Rights Council and other bodies.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Do we now have a question from Mr.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, I got it wrong.

Do we have any other question?

Emma from Reuters, if I may to follow up on my colleagues question.

I don't think that the question on the the list was was fully answered.

If you could just say who that would be shared with and why it's confidential.

And on Sabha, could you explain why you weren't able to get access there?

Are you still pursuing access and what do you think you might find on the ground?

[Other language spoken]

In terms of the the first part of your question linked to the to the colleague investigations are still going on at the moment.

And I think that the question of the preparation of the least will be at the tail end of the completion of the work of the FFM because of the fact that the evidence is leading to certain trials, obviously.

And if you read the report carefully, I think you will see that there are some sections where at least responsibility is indicated in terms of specific attacks.

For example, in the context of that of the violations of international humanitarian law, we indicate an attack on where we Emma Polyclinic.

Hit by rockets in April 2020 and this was under, you know, an attack under the control of particular groups which are indicated.

So where attacks have occurred, indications that also met of the areas under control in relation to the militias and what we need to follow up then is evidence of responsibility, individual criminal responsibility, whether through command structures or actual perpetrators.

And the next nine months will be quite critical to that.

And within the methods of investigations established by the field mission of the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, there is a database that is held in relation to such lists and the lists will therefore be preserved in that database for future use.

You also asked on, you know, the, the, the question of what was it?

I remember cyber, yes, the question of cyber, I think we have detailed in, in the report as well.

We had a fairly detailed arrangement to go to cyber logistics in place.

We had hired a plane, but at the last minute we're told that it was not actually appropriate or safe for us to go to Seba.

And such is the reality of the investigations.

So we hope that in the next nine months we'll be able to go to Seba as well.

As you recall, our mandate is to carry out investigations throughout the territory of Libya.

We have carried out investigations at least in the East, but we haven't been to the South.

And SEBA is quite critical in making sure that our report is is fair, it's impartial in terms of its findings.

And if we don't go to SEBA, the likelihood is that whatever final findings we make, including issues of attribution, will not be fair and will not represent the geographical scope in which those crimes have been committed.

[Other language spoken]

We'll now take a question from Lisa Schlein from Voice of America.

Lisa, you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

Hi, Pascal, that's nice of you.

I had lowered my my hand in the interim.

But anyway, do do you so far have the number of suspected suspects that you have on your confidential list?

Are they in the in the, in the dozens or hundreds or I, I don't know.

And do do they, I know you can't give the names, but do they also include people from the current government, recognised international government, as well as others, rebel forces and so forth?

[Other language spoken]

We cannot at this stage indicate any number of likely suspects that have come out of our investigations, largely because this is ongoing.

And if we indicated or released in any way, there are also serious consequences on the part of those that will be named, a fair trial, consequences, responsibility.

So it would only be fair, I think, for this to be done at the very end of the process of of our investigations.

But the magnitude is quite broad because so far we have carried out more than 3000 interviews in the process that we have been engaged in the context of the deprivation of liberty, for example, detention.

We've investigated 27 places, carried out more than 80 interviews.

So that that indicates at least you know, the, the, the scope of investigations, which is related likely, you know, to the magnitude of perpetration.

And what then remains to be seen by following the trail of the evidence will be the actual perpetrators themselves.

So numbers don't concern us very much.

It is the nature of the violations and those individuals that are likely to be involved in those violations.

[Other language spoken]

We'll take a question from the room.

Sir, if you could announce your name in your media please.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Missionaries is a continuing thread of of our investigation and it is contained in our present report to the Human Rights Council.

I think broadly we note the deterioration or at least the numbers of missionaries are decreasing.

I think most of all because of partly the events and the conflicts in in Ukraine where a market may have been found elsewhere for missionaries.

So the the number of Syrian missionaries, the Wagner missionaries is also decreasing.

Nonetheless, we note that in the context of the African Union Convention on Missionaries, missionaries is a crime and therefore, notwithstanding the fact that the numbers are decreasing, we're still looking into the actual perpetration of certain atrocities, crimes and violations by missionaries.

In our report, we have focused so much on the planting of land mines and the effect of those land mines in relation to, you know, to the population and the fact that the role of land mines in this particular regard is is part of at the conduit of international crimes.

[Other language spoken]

We'll take another question from Nabil Avisa from Malahabi on mute.

Thank you for giving me the chance again.

Mr Muhammad, you talked about that some judges maybe are subject to what kind of pressure or they are under pressure politically or different kind of pressure.

Can you give us some examples about how, in which environment, political environment, the judges and the courts in general in in which way they are under pressure?

Can you please explain?

[Other language spoken]

Shukran Resilien Thank you Nabil very much, Mr Nabil Alwadowofi Libya The situation in Libya is extremely complex.

Al assassia It is one al ballad characterised the fact that the country seaman is witnessing division confrontation which led to al Qaeda on all institutions including the.

In spite of.

And others and those working as well as attacks and violations.

[Other language spoken]

Do we have any other questions?

Well, in that case, that brings us to the end of this press conference.

I thank you all for attending this.

Briefly, would you like to have closing remarks, Sir?

[Other language spoken]

We hope it will do so in order for us to continue.

For the.

Text and spirit of the Human Rights Council.

Thank you all very much and may the peace of God be with you.

Well, thank you very much all for attending this press briefing.

And a special thanks to the three members of the Fact Finding Mission, Mr Oja, Miss Robinson and Mr Baheni for their availability today.

As I said earlier, the report of the Fact Finding Mission as well as the conference room paper, the violations committed in the Libyan town of Tahuna are available on the FFMS web page and both document will be officially presented before the Council this coming Wednesday in the morning.

Thank you very much and enjoy the rest of the day.