A/HRC/17/44 D. Acknowledgments 19. The Commission is grateful to the numerous Libyans and other foreign nationals, especially victims and witnesses of violations, who have shared with it their stories and views. The Commission is also grateful to all the Member States, United Nations agencies, domestic and international NGOs that have supported its mandate and provided a vast amount of relevant and well-documented information. The Commission is appreciative of the dedicated work of the Secretariat to support its work. The Commission wishes to formally thank the Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and representatives of NTC for their cooperation and readiness to accept the request for a visit. It also wishes to thank both the Egyptian and Tunisian authorities for facilitating the conduct of its programme at short notice. II. The Commission’s findings of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law A. Introduction 20. In order to understand the current situation in Libya, it is important to place developments within the broader human rights context there. This includes the economic disparities and manner of governance and serious human rights issues. The Commission notes that a range of human rights concerns about Libya have been raised in international forums, in particular by United Nations human rights treaty bodies and special procedures mechanisms. The large number of documented enforced disappearances and cases of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has been noted by the Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations (CCPR/C/LBY/CO/4, para. 14), along with concerns expressed about the lack of information concerning effective investigation and redress. Unresolved cases of disappearance include those of Libyan opposition members Jaballa Hamed Matar and Izzat al-Megaryef (disappeared in 1990), and former Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the United Nations and later opposition figure Mansour Rashid El-Kikhia (disappeared in 1993). In 1978, Lebanese cleric Imam Musa Al-Sadr was also disappeared in Libya with two companions. 6 The Human Rights Committee, in its concluding observations, also raised concerns regarding arbitrary arrest, the absence of judicial review of detention and the length of pretrial detention (para. 19) and the systematic use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (para. 15). Although torture is considered a crime under the Libyan Penal Code, the Committee against Torture, in its concluding observations, has been critical of the absence of prompt and impartial investigations into incidents of torture (A/54/44, paras. 176–189). 21. Freedom of speech and freedom to engage in public affairs have been significantly curtailed in law and in practice. Law No. 71/1972 prohibited the establishment of political parties and made associations undertaking “political activities” illegal. “Political activity” for this purpose is defined broadly to include any activity based on a political ideology 6 The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has transmitted 14 cases to the Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; of those, five cases have been clarified on the basis of information provided by sources, and nine remain outstanding (see A/HRC/13/31, para. 333). During its investigation, the Commission was also given information on the disappearances of many persons in the past, in particular from the Nafusa mountain region. 9