A/HRC/19/68
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
28 January 2014
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Nineteenth session
Agenda item 4
Human rights situation that require the Council’s attention
Report of the International Commission of
Inquiry on Libya* ** ***
Summary
In its resolution S-15/1, the Human Rights Council established an international
commission of inquiry on Libya and gave it the mandate to investigate all alleged
violations of international human rights law in Libya, to establish the facts and
circumstances of such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to
identify those responsible, to make recommendations, in particular, on accountability
measures, all with a view to ensuring that those individuals responsible are held
accountable.
The Commission of Inquiry conducted its investigations applying the international
legal regimes dictated by the situation. It concluded that international crimes, specifically
crimes against humanity and war crimes, had been committed by Qadhafi forces in Libya.
Acts of murder, enforced disappearance and torture were perpetrated within the context of a
widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. The Commission found
additional violations including unlawful killing, individual acts of torture and ill-treatment,
attacks on civilians, and rape.
The Commission also concluded that the anti-Qadhafi forces, the thuwar, had
committed serious violations, including war crimes and breaches of international human
rights law, the latter continuing at the time of the present report. It found these violations to
include unlawful killing, arbitrary arrest, torture, enforced disappearance, indiscriminate
attacks, and pillage. It found in particular that the thuwar were targeting the Tawergha and
other communities.
* Late submission.
** See also document A/HRC/19/CRP.1.
*** On 16 September 2011, pursuant to a request submitted by the National Transitional
Council to the Protocol and Liaison Service of the United Nations, the previous official and
short forms of the State (respectively, the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and
the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) were replaced by the name “Libya”.
GE.14-10598
*1410598*
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