Children who experienced violence are often reluctant to tell others about their stories for various reasons, including guilt, timidity, fear of disbelief, or even reprimanded for what happened. Moreover, service providers, if any, are not always available or equipped to deal with situations of violence. One of the most important factors affecting any response to violence against children is the victim's knowledge of where to seek help.
Government’s (official) support services for child victims of violence are minimal in Libya, with no referral or reporting systems in general or largely ineffective.
According to the 2011 analysis of the situation of children's rights in the Middle East and North Africa conducted by “Save the Children”, child protection provisions are not well implemented, and there is a lack of programs as well as referrals and rehabilitation services for abuse victims.
In March 2016, Save the Children and Handicap International conducted a protection assessment in Libya, focusing on the situation of IDPs. The overall purpose was to assess urgent and intermediate protection needs in Tripoli and Benghazi. According to this assessment, it is worth noting that hospitals are one of the very few places of service providers from government institutions in a context where other government support services (such as those normally provided by the judicial system) are “powerless” due to armed conflict.
The non-governmental support of local and international NGOs was not able to provide effective and sustained assistance due to the ongoing armed conflict in Libya, in addition, international NGOs, in particular, are rarely contacted for protection assistance because they either do not exist on the ground or because victims are unaware of the services available.
Speaking about UNICEF's role as a UN children's organization in Libya, UNICEF Libya spokesperson Mustafa Omar said: `` The study conducted by UNICEF's Child Protection Section on violence against children in homes and schools has produced alarming figures, '' He pointed out that the Libyan society considers violence as a form of education, as often considered by adults as a form of nourishment, whether inside the home or in schools.
Sometimes teachers are asked by parents to abuse their children
He added that the UNICEF office in Libya doesn’t work on the ground directly, but always works through local and international partners such as local and international NGOs or in partnership with government institutions such as the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Along others.
For example, UNICEF has concluded a two-year working agreement with the Ministry of Social Affairs, which has been in effect since May 2019, under which the Ministry, in collaboration with UNICEF, will implement systems to provide protection for children by proposing legislation and policies that contribute to ending cases of violence against children within the community. generally. He also referred to other projects previously carried out by the organization in cooperation with government institutions where the establishment of family and child protection units in coordination with the Libyan government in 2014 to be activated protection units by the Ministry of Interior after the training of officers and social workers and judges In particular to deal with abused children and provide a means of communication. He stressed that the most important step UNICEF is currently working on in Libya is to monitor the situation in order to understand and assess the Libyan situation and deal with violence against children.
Despite all attempts by UNICEF Libya to contribute to the provision of ways and systems for reporting cases of violence against children, Libyan government institutions remain directly responsible for implementing any protection or reporting systems that protect children, especially domestic violence.
Social affairs .. have nothing to do
Weak arguments are the only way to escape social responsibility provided by the ministry, and in light of the hundreds and possibly thousands of cases in Libya as a result of domestic violence in which the Ministry of Social Affairs takes the role of indirectly shirking responsibility on the grounds that it does not have the means and budgets for incubating and taking care of violence cases.
Advisor to the Ministry of Social Affairs Zahra Oweid said that the Libyan society - which she described as "conservative and puritanical" - considers the family a red line for it, who tries as much as possible to keep problems confidential and hidden from people, which she considers positive to maintain the privacy of the house and family. she explained that confidentiality and containment to try to remedy problems internally may be effective in order to preserve the family fabric and prevent its disintegration.
I am proud that I’m from the Libyan society, a strict closed one which maintains its customs and traditions, and preserves the social fabric. Which means the family is a red line
Oweid says that the ministry uses a secret mechanism to identify victims of violence residing with their families, which are often heard through reports from anonymous or close people to those families, which often pushes the ministry's social workers to go to those families. Pretending to be committees of population, large families or endangered houses, this speeds up the ability of these families to deal with these specialists without knowing their true identity. Through the process of observation or search inside the house, we check whether there are visible injuries in children or victims, and therefore ensure that there are cases of violence and re-visit them officially and clearly many times. In spite of these attempts and methods applied by the Ministry of Social Affairs, they seem useless and limited to provide advice after confirming the presence of violence, where it is not possible to implement systems to provide protection for children in domestic violence, especially with no clear mechanism for reporting or Transfer cases through police stations, for example.
She also adds that the only solution to reduce or eliminate domestic violence is to have direct or indirect partnerships between all government institutions involved, as well as to cooperate with non - governmental organizations that are concerned with children's rights. she considers the current state of government institutions as fragmented and there is no mechanism for joint action, which makes each institution work separately and modestly without real results.
When asked if the ministry has any statistics or figures about child victims of domestic violence in Libya, Oweid assured us that the ministry does not have any statistics or figures in this regard because there is no communication between them and the Ministry of Interior where no cases are referred to them. From police stations.
Your way is deadlocked!
Child victims of violence in Libya face significant obstacles to access justice in Libyan courts. In order to file for a criminal case, the person must reach the legal age, which is 18 years. Consequently, child victims of violence have access to justice only if their legal guardian proceeds on their behalf in accordance with Libyan laws and regulations. The exception to this rule applies when a minor seeks legal action “against his or her guardians because of the actions taken during the custody period,” but disagrees on whether this applies to children who are abused by their biological parents. The lack of any complaints makes access to justice for child victims of violence more difficult.
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Notice :
All figures and statistics used are from a study on violence against children in Libya conducted by UNICEF’s Child Protection Section Office in Libya.
The total sample size is 2,887 from middle school students in 22 different districts with a total of 46 public schools. The pupils surveyed were between 11 and 18 years old. 55% were Females participants, while 45% were males.