CASE STUDY #4 Describe Human Rights promotion initiatives and strategies in your country.

Identify local and international human rights advocates or projects. How do they approach human rights promotion? How effective are they? How have youth activists and movements used human rights ideas and discourses? Throughout its existence Colonel Qaddafis regime has committed vast human rights violations. During the 1990s Libya began to address its HR violations, as a direct result of U.N. imposed sanctions, an international response to the Lockerbie bombing. Thereafter, interactions between international HR organizations and Libya increased exponentially, and attempts to reform Qaddafis regime were made by the Justice Ministry to reform its penal code and the Internal Security Agency, which carried out brutal measures of state repression.i The most prominent HR initiative occurred in 2008 when Libyan HR lawyers attempted to establish a HR NGO to watch over HR conditions in Libya, yet they were unsuccessful. Other governmental reforms were completely unsuccessful, one example comes to mind is General Peoples Committee for Justice who released many political prisoners, despite this verdict the Internal Security Agency failed to uphold the court ruling.1 Interestingly enough, while no political party or organization can be founded in Libya, the Libyan League for Human Rights is an organization that has opposed Qaddafis regime for over two decades. Also the LLHR helped to procure the release of Libyan-American Gibani Abdelgader Gibani by raising awareness of his detainment to U.S. officials. 2 Additionally, LLHR has brought charges against the US government for violating articles 9 and 12 of the UDHR, stating that the FBI, among others, were
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http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/libya1209webwcover.pdf https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=128564017217478

responsible for detaining, exiling and interfering with the privacy of Libyans who living in America (my former housemate Abdurrahman was visited by the FBI).3 A letter addressed to Obama, UN Secretary General Moon and EUs leader Ashton, drafted by LLHR and backed by 70 NGOs, would provide the legal basis for military intervention. These claims coupled with the co-signers prestige, would be the determining factor in garnering International attention, having previously been ignored. The letter uses its long list of fallacious claims, many having been de-bunked by a 2011 Amnesty International report, in congruence with the responsibility to protect clause to legitimizes U.N. intervention.4 Even the chairmen of LLHR Sliman Bouchuiguir, admitted that many of his friends were now members of the NTC.5 On a different note, Human Rights groups such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch, to name a few, have all expressed growing concern about the HR abuses Pro-Qaddafi fighters face (being arbitrarily held in detestable prisons, and frequently subjected to torture) in Rebel prisons. While these groups bring about a transparency and attention to HR violations, they are limited in their scope to document HR cases as they unfold in a civil war atmosphere. Also, in HR reports the trend is to offer a laundry list of recommendations, such as how NTC can instill democratic institutions, what HR laws should be included when the constitution is drafted, the need to set up a committee investigate HR abuses by rogue militia groups. But to be frank the NTC has a daunting task in front of them, and to some extent they

http://libyanleague.org/category/statements/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/POL10/012/2011/en/a31cf35a0d47-4374-82ff-a4d440398861/pol100122011en.pdf 5 http://www.voltairenet.org/Lybia-Human-rights-impostors-used

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seem to give an ear to HRO rhetoric, in order to sideline them or even obscure the degree in which HR violations, have, and may, continue to exist in post-war Libya. The Libyan Youth Movement known as Shabab was created in during the early days of the Egyptian revolution, set up to raise awareness about events unfolding in Libya and create a social media forum where Libyas opposition voices could be expressed. One of the more interesting roles the youth group took on was providing coordinates to Qaddafi targets, through individual posts on the groups Twitter and Facebook accounts, thus NATO forces attacked the targets provided by users posting in both online forums.6 On Shababs Facebook account they also expressed solidarity with the Syrian movement, calling for U.N. intervention. In the information and technology age, social media has brought an entirely new dimension that connects people across the globe, and Shabab with 23,143 friends, has had and will continue to have a role to play in forming a new Libyan government. 7 The discourse embedded in more mainstream Human Rights NGOs all seem to be vain attempts to promote HR in Libya amidst growing HR concerns. In addition, investigating HR trends between Post/Pre Qaddafi era hints that a paradigm exists between HR organizations and western elitist interests, the former serving to distort the later true intentions. Whether, further analysis will be needed to determine any validity to such a claim. Although, one can never be too sure when dealing with oil rich states, for with black gold conspiracies seem to run amok.
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http://www.shabablibya.org/features http://www.facebook.com/LibyanYouthMovement