30 آب 2010
On the occasion of the visit of Libyan leader Mu'ammar Gaddafi to Italy , the Italian section of Amnesty International wrote a letter to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi calling for Italy to put the issue of human rights on the agenda of the meetings program and, more generally, in the center of the bilateral relations and the cooperation between Italy and Libya.
The dialogue between the two countries, culminating in the Agreement of Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation, the second anniversary of which was celebrated today, concerned among other things the fight against illegal immigration through joint patrols of the Mediterranean Sea and the transfer of funds and means by Italy, forgetting about the appalling human rights situation in Libya.
In June this year, Amnesty International has issued a report in which it stresses how the situation of human rights in Libya is characterized by the absense of reforms, despite the country's intention to play a greater role internationally. The report, based also on a field research mission in 2009 and updated until mid-May 2010, denounced a series of human rights violations, including torture, flogging of women and death penalty.
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In its letter to Prime Minister Berlusconi, Amnesty International notes that Libya's international partners should place the serious human rights situation at the center of the dialogue with the authorities of this country. As a member of the international community, Libya does have the responsibility to fulfill its obligations regarding human rights and to deal with the violations without hiding them. This would allow to overcome such contradictions as to be part of the UN Human Rights Council and at the same time reject the visits of its independent experts.
Italy, in particular, Amnesty International points out, could take a leading role in the dialogue on human rights, and engage efforts in this direction starting from the meetings on the agenda of the visit of Libyan leader Gaddafi and, subsequently, in view of the Universal Periodic Review (*) within the UN Human Rights Council, which will also concern Libya in November.
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The cooperation has resulted in the Agreement of Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed by Prime Minister Berlusconi and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli, on August 30, 2008, and was quickly ratified by an overwhelming majority in the Italian parliament in February 2009. This treaty does not devote space to the concrete protection of human rights but builds the foundations of a political cooperation on immigration.
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The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed.
The UPR was created through the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council itself. It is a cooperative process which, by 2011, will have reviewed the human rights records of every country. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists. The UPR is one of the key elements of the new Council which reminds States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The ultimate aim of this new mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.
