Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Libya (Ratification: 1961)

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Sanctions involving compulsory labour as a punishment for expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system.The Publications Act No. 76, 1972 and the Penal Code. The Committee recalls that it has been referring for a number of years to various provisions of the Publications Act No. 76, 1972, under which persons who express certain political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system may be punished with penalties of imprisonment. These provisions – sections 28, 29, 37, 38 and 43 – concern restrictions on publication, printing and dissemination of information and provide for the imposition of penalties of imprisonment involving the obligation to work by virtue of sections 20, 21, 23 and 24(1) of the Penal Code. According to these provisions of the Penal Code, sentences of life imprisonment or imprisonment are defined as the confinement of a person in a place designated for the purpose and the infliction of compulsory labour, in accordance with the Prison Regulations. In cases of sentences of detention for a period of one year or more, the judge may order that the detention be with compulsory work.

Moreover, the Committee takes note of the following provisions of the Penal Code under which certain acts are punishable with imprisonment or life imprisonment, involving compulsory labour:

• section 175 providing for life imprisonment for anyone who intentionally circulates news, information or rumours that are false, biased or provocative propaganda in times of war and are such as to cause harm to the military preparations for defence of the country, [sow terror among the people] or to undermine the resilience of the nation;
• section 178 providing for life imprisonment for any Libyan abroad who disseminates or reports rumours or information which are false, exaggerated, or provoke concern about the internal condition of the Libyan Arab Republic;
• section 195, amended by Law No. 5 of 2014, making punishable by imprisonment “making any statements that insult the 17 February Revolution”;
• section 205 providing that anyone who publicly insults the Libyan nation, its national flag or State emblem, is liable to imprisonment;
• sections 206 and 207 providing that certain acts pertaining to unlawful organizations and formations and the promotion of any act against the system of the State are liable to penalties of death or life imprisonment;
• sections 220 and 221, providing that anyone who offends or insults the Government, the legislature, foreign Heads of State or accredited diplomatic representatives, is liable to imprisonment;
• sections 245 and 290, according to which anyone who insults a public official, judicial officer or judicial or administrative body or attacks, by any means of publicity, any religious faith, is liable to detention.

The Committee notes the Government’s reiteration, in its report, that it will take the necessary measures to: (1) bring the Publications Act No. 76, 1972, into conformity with the Convention; and (2) take the Committee’s comments into consideration to ensure that no penalty of imprisonment involving compulsory labour is imposed on persons who express political views or opinions opposed to the political system without resorting to violence.

The Committee notes that, according to the final report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Libya of 3 March 2023, investigations underscored that Libyan authorities, notably the Internal Security Agency (a civil institution of the Libyan State with country-wide jurisdiction), 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. Persons were detained for their criticism of the State and affiliated actors, and expression of divergent political, religious and social views and norms, including their opposition to patriarchy and sexism (A/HRC/52/83).

The Committee reiterates its deep concern at the current human rights situation in the country and recalls that restrictions on fundamental rights and liberties, including freedom of expression, have a bearing on the application of the Convention, if such measures are enforced by sanctions involving compulsory labour, as is the case in Libya when persons are convicted to a penalty of imprisonment or detention.

The Committee once again urges the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that no prison sentences involving compulsory labour are imposed on persons who, without having recourse to violence, express political opinions or views opposed to the established political, social or economic system. The Committee hopes that, as reiterated by the Government in its report, it will take the necessary measures to bring the provisions of Publications Act No. 76 of 1972 into conformity with the Convention. Moreover, it requests the Government to provide specific information on the application in practice of the above-mentioned provisions of the Penal Code, including the number of cases prosecuted, convictions brought, the facts that led to these convictions, and penalties applied.

Anti-Cybercrime Law, 2022. The Committee notes that certain provisions of the Anti-Cybercrime Law of 2022 criminalize behaviours with a prison sentence, which involves compulsory labour. These include section 37 concerning the use of the internet or any other electronic means to propagate or publish information or data threatening public security or peace, in either the State of Libya or any other State. Sections 9 and 39 subject the use, as well as the production, manufacturing, distribution, and so forth, of encryption technologies or tools, to the consent of the National Information and Security and Safety Authority (NISSA) – an administrative and technical governmental authority – which is otherwise punishable with imprisonment. Under sections 4 and 7 of the Law, the use of the internet and “new technologies” is only legitimate and lawful as long as “public order and morality” are respected, and NISSA is permitted to monitor all content published on the internet and any other technical platform and block websites if they are deemed to provoke “racial or regional slurs and extremist religious or denominational ideologies that undermine the security and stability of society”.

The Committee notes that, in their communication of 31 March 2022, several United Nations experts expressed concern that the vague and broad nature of a number of the provisions of the Anti-Cybercrime Law would lead to their discriminate application against journalists, human rights defenders, activists and civil society actors who express dissenting views or publish, share or comment on information about the Government, its policies or actions, with such criticism being liable to interpretation as threatening to “public security or peace” or “public order or morality” (OL LBY 3/2022).

In this regard, the Committee notes, according to a press release of 25 March 2022 on the website of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the concern expressed by the Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the deepening crackdown on civil society in Libya, where arbitrary arrests and a campaign of vilification are having a chilling effect on human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and other civil society actors. Seven men, aged between 19 and 29, were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Internal Security Agency in 2021 and 2022, for using social media to propagate atheism and contempt for religion. According to the FFM report, four of these men were sentenced to three-year imprisonment “with hard labour” and fined by a domestic court in Tripoli (A/HRC/52/83).

The Committee notes this information with concern, as these restrictions on the right to freedom of expression may be penalized through sanctions of imprisonment involving compulsory labour. Therefore, the Committee urges the Government to take immediate measures, both in law and practice, to put an end to any violation of the Convention, by ensuring that no one who expresses political opinions, including dissenting opinions, or any views through the internet or any other technological tool, can be sentenced to imprisonment, under the terms of which compulsory labour is imposed.In this regard, the Committee expresses the hope that the Government will take measures to ensure that the provisions of the Anti-Cybercrime Law are amended in a way that will restrict their scope and prevent any interpretation in its application that could lead to the imposition of a penalty involving compulsory work on persons who express political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.