Addressing human rights abuses in post Gaddafi Libya Essay

Addressing human rights abuses in post Gaddafi Libya - Essay Example The revolution pitted the forces that were loyal to the then Libya leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi against those who were seeking to oust Gaddafi’s government. What began as clashes between protesters in Benghazi with security forces later escalated into a revolution across Libya with those opposed to Gaddafi’s government establishing the National Transitional Council; their interim governing body. During the revolution, various atrocities were committed against the Libyan people thus violating the human rights provisions. The forces that were loyal to Gaddafi committed most atrocities; there are also allegations that those who were opposed to Gaddafi’s government committed some atrocities as well. There were crimes against humanity such as murder, torture, rape, enforced disappearance of people, and extermination among other inhumane acts that caused serious physical and mental injuries to the people of Libya. It is for this reason that Truth and Reconciliation C ommission (TRC) is necessary in order to address the spirit injuries of all kinds that occurred during the revolution. According to Sunga (2009), a Truth and Reconciliation Commission refers to a commission mandated with the responsibility of discovering, investigating, and revealing the past atrocities, injustices, and any other kind of wrongdoing by actors, with an aim of addressing the injuries caused by those acts, hence resolving the conflict that may be within the conflicting parties. The actors can be the government or non- state actors depending on the circumstances. The main aim of TRC is to ensure that the conflicting (or that conflicted) parties are able to co- exist peaceful, and that there will be no recurrence of such acts in the future (p. 4). In the case of Libya, there is no guarantee that the Libyans will accept TRC due to varying reasons. Assuming that they have rejected TRC to address the spirit injuries of all kinds that occurred during the revolution, there are proposed legal alternatives based on international, regional or national laws. First, it is important to state two major possible that would make the Libyans reject TRC. First, they may feel that TRC will allow those who committed crime against humanity to get away with it hence denying justice to the victims. Secondly, they may fear that TRC will take long to address their injuries thus delaying justice to the victims; justice delayed is justice denied (Hayner 2001, p.9). Based on the international law, the legal alternative to TRC in addressing the crimes committed is on prosecution of those accused of perpetrating the atrocities. Since Libya is not a State party to the Rome Statute, the situation in Libya was referred to the ICC Prosecutor by the UN Security Council through the unanimous adoption of Resolution 1970, on 26 February 2011. The Crimes against humanity committed in Libya during the revolution are defined under Article 7 (1) of the Rome Statute (Rome Statute of the In ternational Criminal Court, 1998). As such, the legal alternatives to TRC based on international law will be prosecution of the crimes’ suspects in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Concerning legal alternatives to TRC based on regional laws, the laws will fail to address the spirit injuries of all kinds committed during the revolution. This is because the rule 26 of African Court on Human Rights and Peoples Rights state that the court do not have jurisdiction to hear criminal cases. Therefore, since the atrocities committed in Libya were of criminal nature, the regional court will not provide any suitable alternative since the victims will feel aggrieved. The national law may provide alternative to TRC