UN Authority Figures

UN Human Rights Council : Libya - membership suspended on March 1, 2011 and restored on November 18, 2011

Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sit caged in a courtroom in their original trial in Benghazi, Libya, accused of deliberately injecting 400 hospitalized Libyan children with HIV. (CBC News, May 6, 2004)

Mission of the Human Rights Council:
"The General Assembly...2. Decides that the Council shall be responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner; 3. Decides also that the Council should address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon..." (Resolution 60/251)

Libya's Term of office: 2010-2013

Libya's Record on human rights:
"The government's human rights record remained poor. Citizens did not have the right to change their government... Denial of fair public trial by an independent judiciary, political prisoners and detainees, and the lack of judicial recourse for alleged human rights violations were also problems. The government instituted new restrictions on media freedom and continued to restrict freedom of speech... It continued to impede the freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and civil liberties...Security personnel reportedly routinely tortured and abused detainees and prisoners during interrogations or as punishment...In previous years the reported methods of torture and abuse included chaining prisoners to a wall for hours; clubbing; applying electric shock; applying corkscrews to the back; pouring lemon juice in open wounds; breaking fingers and allowing the joints to heal without medical care; suffocating with plastic bags; depriving detainees of sleep, food, and water; hanging by the wrists; suspending from a pole inserted between the knees and elbows; burning with cigarettes; threatening with dog attacks; and beatings on the soles of the feet...Women and girls suspected of violating moral codes were detained indefinitely without being convicted or after having served a sentence and without the right to challenge their detention before a court...They were held in "social rehabilitation" facilities, in some cases because they had been raped and then ostracized by their families. The government stated that a woman was free to leave a rehabilitation home when she reached "legal age" (18 years), consented to marriage, or was taken into the custody of a male relative." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2009, Libya)