UN Office of Human Rights is investigating allegations of torture and abuses under the new authorities in Libya. As the battle for Sirte is not yet over and even in Tripoli remnants of the old Gaddafi regime persist, the challenges for the new authorities are significant. It is nowhere more critical than in the human rights arena that the new Libya get-off on the right foot. It is also appropriate to remind that the International Criminal Court has authority under UN Security Council Chapter VII Resolution to investigate and prosecute grave violations of international humanitarian law regardless of political affiliation of culprit. Also NATO continues to play a critical role and has authority to intervene militarily to protect civilians. Head of the UN human right’s office’s rule of law section, Mona Rishmawi offered that the new Libyan authorities want to “turn the page on human rights violations” and are “very clear that they want to build a new Libya. They realize the heavy price that they paid, the human price that they paid, to turn the page on human rights violations and they are very clear that they want to build a new Libya.” Nevertheless, Rishmawi acknowledged that there is evidence that torture is being conducted in Libyan prisons. “We talked to a lot of people including lawyers, clients, human rights NGO’s, both international and national, where we actually believe the situation in the prisons, there is ill treatment, there is allegations and evidence of torture.” Rishmawi estimates 7,000 people detained in makeshift prisons throughout Libya. “There are thousands of people who are being held. We are talking about large numbers it could be up to 7,000. It could be. So we are talking about quite a few. They are facing serious challenges in this area and it’s not unknown challenge in the sense that the system collapsed and therefore at this stage there is no police infrastructure, there is no prison authorities. The prison authorities were under the justice ministry and right now the justice ministry is not fully functional.” The ill treatment of migrants and others assumed to be “mercenaries” for Gaddafi has aroused particular attention, especially since some of the suspicion cast upon such individuals may relate to darker skin color(PHOTO Above). (Many of Gaddafi’s mercenaries came from Sub-Sahara Africa but also places in Europe including the former Yugoslavia). By Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey Facebook = Become a Fan at “Diplomatically Incorrect” Twitter – Follow us at DiplomaticallyX War Crimes Justice Channel - diplomaticallyincorrect.org/c/war-crimes-justice