Organizations DOCUMENTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN LIBYA

Defender Center for Human Rights 

The initiative strives to create a focal point in Tunis for Libyan HRDs, activists, and media workers inside and outside Libya to document cases of human rights violations, support activists, and refer them to NGOs that can provide them with financial, legal and psychological assistance. The Defender Center for Human Rights is planning to identify HRDs and associations working in Libya to respond to their urgent needs of support. Defender Center also focuses on reinforcing the capacity of HRDs and associations representatives on Digital security, IT and network security, proper documentation of human rights violations, networking and advocacy campaigns.

Moreover, Defender Center has important and effective collaboration, i.e. but not limited to: A partnership with Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Front Line Defenders Organization (FLD), European Endowment for Democracy (EED), Euro-Mediterranean of Support to Human Rights Defenders (EuroMed). Democratic Transition and Human Rights Support “DAAM”, the  Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES).

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. They are roughly 450 people of 70-plus nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need.

They direct their advocacy towards governments, armed groups, and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies, and practices. To ensure their independence, they refuse government funding and corporate ties. They partner with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims.

Amnesty International

Through their detailed research and determined campaigning, Amnesty International helps fight abuses of human rights in Libya. They bring torturers to justice, change oppressive laws, and free people jailed just for voicing their opinion. They believe human rights change starts with the facts, so their experts do accurate, cross-checked research into human rights violations by governments and others in Libya.

They use their analysis to influence and press governments, companies, and decision-makers to do the right thing. Through petitions, letters and protests, campaigners worldwide press for action from the people and institutions who can make change happen. 

Euro-MEDITERRANEAN Human Rights Monitor

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has declared its mission to establish an independent and nongovernmental organization that would work across the region to investigate and expose oppression and atrocities has become urgent. Their mission is to not only observe and document violations of human rights, but also inform public opinion and “plant the seeds” for international mobilization by advocacy organizations, governmental bodies, watchdog groups, and grassroots activists.

They believe international law must once again become a respected tool of world governance, to which the downtrodden and persecuted can look for relief through recognition and redress, including compensation; impunity must become an artefact of the past, no matter how wealthy or influential the party.

Development AND CIVIL SOCIETY organizations in LIBYA

Saferworld

Since 2012, Saferworld has been working with Egyptian and Libyan women to address issues which prevent women’s political participation, and which threaten their personal safety and security. With partners they conducted research with women in Egypt and Libya published in their report "It's dangerous to be the first": security barriers to women's public participation in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. The report recommends governments and civil society groups address safety issues that impede women’s ability to participate in public and political life

International Energy Foundation in Libya

International Energy Foundation (IEF) is an international non-governmental organization (NGO), non -profit making, non-political group of scientists, researchers, engineers and others from around the world, pooling resources and working together. Their mission is to facilitate the exchange of research and technology, with special emphasis on developing countries for enhancing the capacity building of the human resources in all areas of energy and environment.

IEF is interested in better ways to encourage greater cooperation across a wide range of interests and raise awareness of the value of help that not only generates greater trust and economic rebuilding but also help produce, transmit, and conserve energy, sustainable development, and protection of the environment. IEF intends to work closely with counterparts in other countries, people, and organizations to learn new techniques and processes. They will see how different methods have worked in practice, and by identifying examples of good practice, they benefit from the experiences of others in modernizing their networks allowing faster development at lower costs.

Lawyers for Justice in Libya

Lawyers for Justice in Libya is a Libyan and international independent non-governmental organisation.  They work on and in Libya with a growing network of lawyers, activists and grassroots communities across and outside the country. Their accountability work documents, monitors, and reports on past, current, and ongoing human rights abuses and uses strategic legal interventions as a starting point for change to combat the culture of impunity and ensure that all individuals in Libya can claim their rights and access justice. Through advocacy and outreach, they strive to ensure that the human rights of all stakeholders are a key consideration during the decision making processes of domestic, regional and international institutions and actors, and engage the public to build a deeper understanding and culture of  human rights in Libya.

In 2017, LFJL launched the Human Rights Archive (the Archive), a digital archive of evidence related to human rights violations in Libya. They established the Archive with the founding group of Libyan NGOs, ‘The Network for Monitoring and Archiving for Justice’ (SHIRA), which they brought together in 2016. The project seeks to protect documentation and evidence of human rights violations in Libya, which is at risk of being lost, stolen or damaged. LFJL created a centralised space where organisations can share information relating to human rights abuses in order to create a national archive of human rights violations to support future transitional justice processes.

Relief Organizations in LIBYA

International Rescue Committee 

Since August 2016, the IRC has provided emergency and reproductive health services in western Libya. The IRC is one of the few international organisations with a direct presence in Libya with three office in Tripoli, Misrata, and Sirte. As Libya continues to endure political instability and widespread violence, the IRC is focused on: providing critical health-care in hard to reach places in western Libya; providing life-saving medicines to primary health clinics; when possible, providing a referral pathway for patients in urgent need; renovating primary health clinics which have been damaged during the civil war; deploying experienced social workers to provide case management and psychosocial support in communities impacted by the conflict.

The IRC seeks to expand its health and protection programmes in Libya, providing support to vulnerable Libyans, refugees, and migrants as funding permits. To this end, the IRC plans to support additional primary healthcare facilities, establish its own community development centre and support people being held in detention centres. There is no shortage of needs in Libya, for both Libyans and migrants, but low commitments from donor countries compared to other humanitarian crises and an especially restrictive security environment pose challenges to scaling up our response.

International Committee of the Red Cross in Libya

The ICRC has striven to help the most vulnerable people. It currently operates from four offices in Libya – Tripoli in the West, Misrata in the Centre, Benghazi in the East, and Sabha in the South – and has some 260 staff based mostly inside Libya and some in Tunis. The ICRC, often in partnership with the Libyan Red Crescent Society (LRCS), responded to several humanitarian emergencies arising in various parts of the country in 2018, as follows: provided food and essential household items and livelihood assistance, supported health facilities, improved access to safe water and better sanitation, reconnected families, helped find the missing, and practiced dignified management of human remains.

Red Crescent Society

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is the world's largest humanitarian network and is guided by seven Fundamental Principles: Humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, universality, and unity. The volunteers of Libyan Red Crescent do whatever they can to help people in need, regardless of where they are from. Many of those who need help are migrants from either sub-Saharan Africa, or the Middle East. Red Crescent volunteer teams provide medical check ups to people migrating, in collaboration with the local authorities.

With many hospitals closed and few doctors available, visits by Red Crescent volunteer teams are one of the few ways that people in need, particularly migrants, can access medical assistance. Red Crescent volunteer teams provide medical check ups to migrants, in collaboration with the local authorities. Red Crescent teams visit accommodation centers for migrants, providing help where they can, and transporting more serious cases to medical centers, if they are available. Many migrants travel onwards from Libya, but on an almost daily basis, lives are lost in the crossing. These people are also served by Red Crescent volunteers, even after their death. The remains of each person are collected from the shoreline with respect and all the dignity possible by these teams.