Jerba, 22 of March 2021 – In collaboration with UNSMIL/Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Division, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Libyan Ministry of Justice, started a two-day workshop on the international covenant on civil and political rights for Twenty-five Libyan government officials coming from diverse geographical areas and representing several ministries including the Ministry of Justice,  Ministry of Interior, Ministry of defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Presidential office.

This workshop is part of the NPWJ support program for the Libyan Ministry of Justice launched in November 2020: ‘’Program to enhance Libya's efforts to fulfil its international obligations in the field of human rights’’ which aims at supporting Libyan authorities’ efforts to respect its international human rights obligations by submitting all its overdue reports to the relevant UN committees. 

It’s to be recalled that the last report submitted by Libya to the Human rights committee dates to 2007. 

The workshop started with an introduction to the international covenant on Civil and Political Rights then dealt with the list of issues prior to submission of the fifth periodic report of Libya such as the Constitutional and legal framework, fight against impunity and past human rights violations, non-discrimination, and gender equality.

Dr Hatem Kotrane, a former member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Mr Frej Fenniche, former director at the office of High Commissioner for Human Rights and Regional representative of NPWJ and Mr Bassam Aicha, international trainer on Human rights oversaw the implementation of the workshop sessions. The participants, who are senior officials and managers involved in human rights issues in their respective ministries, interacted positively with the experts and agreed on the distribution of tasks among them that will allow them to start the report drafting process. The work achieved during the workshop gives a positive signal that the set objectives are on the right track. 

This program is co-funded by the European Union.