Libya: Make Urgent Justice System Reforms
20.05.12
(Tripoli) – Libya’s transitional government should urgently enact desperately needed reform to promote human rights and the rule of law after 42 years of dictatorship and eight months of war, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch was in Libya for two weeks beginning December 6, 2011, assessing human rights conditions under the new government. The Human Rights Watch delegation met with National Transitional Council (NTC) Chairman Mustafa Abdeljalil, Prime Minister Abdulrahim El-Keib, and the justice minister, general prosecutor, deputy foreign minister, and head of the newly established national human rights commission, all of whom offered their cooperation. The delegation also met with lawyers, judges, human rights activists, former political prisoners, military commanders, and families of the missing.
“The transitional Libyan government faces immense challenges and should urgently speed up its reforms,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, who led the delegation for the meetings in Tripoli and visited Misrata. “We’re concerned about armed groups holding detainees outside the legal system, and there is a pressing need for new laws to protect free assembly and speech.”
Source: IEWY News