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UN Security Council extends sanctions on Libya with inclusion of sexual crimes
[LIBYANEXPRESS] The U.N. Security Council has authorized action against illicit oil exports from Libya for another six months and added planning and committing sexual and gender-based violence as reasons for sanctions, despite objections from Russia and China.Monday’s vote in the U.N.’s most powerful body was 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining. The Netherlands and Sweden pushed for including "planning, directing or committing acts involving sexual and gender-based violence" as criteria for sanctions, citing the increasingly worrying problem in Libya especially against Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow objected to sexual and gender-based violence being included in a resolution dealing with threats to international peace and security, saying those issues are considered at the Human Rights Council and the Commission on the Status of Women. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the Netherlands and Sweden, which pushed for the new sanctions criteria, of trying to score political points at home. "This is populism distilled in its purest form," Nebenzia told the council, who noted that preventing sex crimes in Sweden and the Netherlands "is the remit of the national governments." "Sexual and gender-based violence are part of crime in any specific country," said the ambassador, adding that the council should focus on threats to international security. The council has added sexual violence as a criteria for sanctions in recent resolutions on the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Posted by: Fred 2018-11-07 |
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