On 27 March, the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Libya issued its final report expressing deep concern over the country’s deteriorating human rights situation. It concluded there are grounds to believe a wide array of war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by State security forces and armed militia groups. The investigation outlines a broad effort by authorities to repress dissent by civil society and documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, murder, rape, enslavement, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance. It said that said that nearly all survivors interviewed had refrained from lodging official complaints out of fear of reprisals, arrest, extortion and a lack of confidence in the justice system. The FFM’s investigations found that Libyan authorities, notably the security sectors, are curtailing the rights to assembly, association, expression, and belief to ensure obedience, entrench self-serving values and norms, and punish criticism against authorities and their leadership. The report said migrants in particular have been targeted and there is overwhelming evidence that they have been systematically tortured. The report said there were reasonable grounds to believe that sexual slavery, a crime against humanity, was committed against migrants. In the context of detention, the report stated that state authorities and affiliated entities were repeatedly found to be involved in violations and abuses. This include the Deterrence Apparatus for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DACOT), the Libyan National Army (LNA) the Internal Security Agency (ISA), and the Stability Support Apparatus (SSA), and their leadership.
