Libya: workshop to support national authorities' efforts to respect and promote rights of persons with disabilities

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On 6-8 June 2021, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Libyan Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with UNSMIL/Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Division and the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, organised a three-day workshop to support Libyan authorities’ capacity to fulfil their obligations pursuant to the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Libya ratified in 2018.
 
Participants included 24 officials from diverse Libyan Ministries (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, Ministries of Education and Higher Education, Social Affairs and its Social Development Fund, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Housing and Utilities) and public institutions (the Council for the Rights of National Persons with Disabilities and the Higher Committee for Childhood).
 
The objective of the workshop was to draft the “zero draft” of Libya’s first national report under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to be presented to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which oversees implementation of the Convention. 
 
As noted during the opening session by NPWJ’s MENA Regional Representative Frej Fenniche,“this event supports Libya’s re-unification process with a focus on human rights, which bind us all to each other and to the State, and binds the latter to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all of us. It is a common effort that reaffirms our humanity.” Salem al-Tayeb, representative of the Libyan Ministry of Justice, added that “this initiative on the cross-sectoral rights of persons with disabilities helps Libya to achieve the needed inter-ministerial coordination in the field of human rights at this critical time.”
 
The workshop was organised in the framework of a project implemented by NPWJ with the financial support of the European Union, which aims at promoting a human rights approach within Libya’s legislative bodies and national authorities and supporting its efforts to fulfil its international obligations to Human Rights Treaties, including by submitting all its overdue reports to the relevant bodies and mechanisms and by implementing their recommendations. 

For further information, please contact: Frej Fenniche: ffenniche@npwj.org - +216 56 441 505 (English, French, العربية)