A/HRC/17/44 60. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has not notified the Secretary-General of any state of emergency and subsequent derogations made to its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 4 of the Covenant permits State parties to derogate from obligations “in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed”. Derogations are only permissible to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, and the measure must not be inconsistent with their other obligations under international law or involve discrimination solely on the ground of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin. Article 4 also clearly stipulates the provisions which are non-derogable, which include but are not limited to the right to life, the prohibition of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion.48 61. International human rights law applies both in peace and times of armed conflict. As the International Court of Justice has concluded, “the protection offered by human rights conventions does not cease in case of armed conflict”.49 Instead, it applies alongside international humanitarian law which is the lex specialis during times of armed conflict. Non-State actors and international human rights law 62. Non-State actors in Libya, in particular the authorities and forces of the National Transitional Council, cannot formally become parties to the international human rights treaties and are thus not formally given obligations under the treaties. Although the extent to which international human rights law binds non-State actors remains contested as a matter of international law,50 it is increasingly accepted that where non-State groups exercise de facto control over territory, they must respect fundamental human rights of persons in that territory.51 The Commission has taken the approach that, as NTC has been 48 49 50 51 20 Human Rights Committee considered that the duty to bring perpetrators to justice attaches in particular to violations that are criminal under domestic or international law, torture and similar cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, summary and arbitrary killing and enforced disappearance. See also the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted by the General Assembly in December 2005, and the Updated Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity (which were recognized in a consensus resolution of the former Commission on Human Rights in 2005). Note also the further rights which the Human Rights Committee has explained are non-derogable: including the right of all persons deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, the prohibition against taking hostages, abductions or unacknowledged detention, certain elements of the right of minorities to protection, the prohibition of deportation or forcible transfer of population and the prohibition of propaganda for war and advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that would constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, as well as procedural rights necessary for the protection of non-derogable rights. These subsidiary obligations include the right to take proceedings before a court to enable the court to decide on the lawfulness of the detention and remedies such as habeas corpus. Human Right Committee, general comment No. 29 (2001) on states of emergency (art. 4), paras. 13 and 15. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 178, paras. 105–106. See also statements concerning international humanitarian law as lex specialis in Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 240, para. 25. For a more expansive view of the application of international human rights law, see Andrew Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). To similar effect, see Secretary-General, Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, 31 March 2011, para. 188. Available from: http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf.