Merna Shalash calls on the International Community to pressure Libya to join the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Merna Shalash, the Executive Director of Partners for Transparency, has delivered an oral statement about Human Rights violations in Libya to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. This came as part of item 6 of the Universal Periodic Review during the 46th session of the Human Rights Council.

From her side, Merna Shalash has commended the role played by the Human Rights Council through the UPR mechanism, highlighting its importance in detecting violations perpetrated especially in conflict zones.

She has expressed her concerns over extrajudicial and summary killings and the inhuman treatment in Libya. Seen in this light, several murders against civilians were detected, among them was an Egyptian expat, whose body was found on 4th December 2020 in East Tobruk with scars of torture.

Partners for Transparency has also condemned the ongoing exposure of Libyans to enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention. On 22nd November, the 21-year old Fatima Mohamed Ahmed Yahiya, and her infant, Alaa Khemna Mawya, from Ubari district, were kidnapped by unknown individuals. On 4th December, she was found dead in another neighborhood of the city, and her body was recovered by the local Red Crescent team, while it was not until 21st December that the body of her infant was found in the swage.

Moreover, Shalash has denounced the violations perpetrated against refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya, especially in the light of Libya’s rejection of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. During 2020, 11891 asylum-seekers were forcibly returned to Libya from the center of the Mediterranean. While 381 drowned bodies were retrieved, 597 were reportedly missing at the sea.

Therefore, Partners for Transparency has recommended the urgency to pressure on Libya by the International Community for joining the UN Convention Relating to the Statues of Refugees, to allow the organizations concerned to play a role in this regard, and to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The foundation has also recommended the importance of enacting the role of civil society in awareness-raising.