The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, meeting at its 9th Extra- Ordinary Session, in Banjul, The Gambia, from 23 February to 3 March 2011:
Recalling its mandate to promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in Africa pursuant to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter);
Recalling Resolution ACHPR/Res. 14 (XVI) 94 on the Human Rights Situation in Africa adopted at its 16th Ordinary Session held in Banjul, The Gambia from 25 October to 3 November 1994;
Considering the grave events which are currently taking place in the Great Socialist Peoples’ Libyan Arab Jamahiriya;
Deeply concerned about the alarming human rights situation that these events have engendered, characterized by serious and massive human rights violations resulting from the blind and indiscriminate use of force, in particular through aerial bombings, the recourse to mercenaries to suppress peaceful demonstrations and the legitimate protests of the citizens;
Concerned by the huge loss of lives and the wanton destruction of buildings and property in violation of the African Charter and other relevant judicial, regional, international human rights instruments and humanitarian law;
Further concerned about the massive displacement of the population afraid for their lives, and the humanitarian consequences on women, children and other vulnerable groups;
Strongly condemns the divisionist speeches of the Head of State, Mouammar El Kadhafi and the bloody reprisal by the Government of the Great Socialist Peoples’ Libyan Arab Jamahiriva against its own population;
Invites the Government of the Great Socialist Peoples’ Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to put an immediate end to the acts of violence and to all the forms of suppression perpetrated against the population and the destruction of property;
Calls on the responsibility of the African Union, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, and the International Community to take all the necessary political and legal measures for the protection of the Libyan population and for the establishment of genuine democratic governance in the State Party.
Done in Banjul, The Gambia, 1st March 2011.
