Libya

Article 7

The State shall safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms, endeavor to join the regional and international declarations and covenants which protect these rights and freedoms and strive for the promulgation of new covenants which recognize the dignity of man as Allah’s representative on earth.

Article 8

The state shall ensure equal opportunity and strive to guarantee a proper standard of living, the right to work, education medical care and social security to every citizen. The State shall guarantee individual and private property. It shall guarantee the just distribution of national wealth among citizens and among the different cities and regions of the State.

Article 14

The State shall guarantee freedom of opinion, individual and collective expression, research, communication, press, media, printing and editing, movement, assembly, demonstration and peaceful sit-in in accordance with the statute.

LIBYA CONSTITUTION 1969 (PDF)

Article 359. Violation of the freedom to work

Any person who resorts to force, violence, intimidation, threats or illegal means to force others to refrain from work or to force an employer to hire or not hire a person, is punishable by, a minimum of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of not less than 100 Dinars, or one of them. The same penalty shall apply if the purpose is to prevent a person from joining a trade union. The provisions of this article shall also apply if force, violence, intimidation or illegal means are used against the person’s spouse or children. The following acts are specifically illegal;

1. To Prevent such a person from working by concealing his tools, clothing or any other item used by him or by any other means.
2. To follow a person to and from work.
3. To take a threatening position near that person’s home or at any other place he inhabits or works at.

Article 425. Slavery

Anyone who enslaves a person or puts him in slavery-like conditions is sentenced to five to fifteen years’ imprisonment.

Article 426. Dealing in slaves and slave trade

Whoever deals in or trades in slaves or in any manner disposes of a slave or a person in a condition resembling slavery shall be punished by a penalty of imprisonment for a period no exceeding ten years. The penalty shall be imprisonment of from three to twelve years in the case of anyone who disposes of a slave or of a person in a condition resembling slavery, or who receives him, or has him in his possession, or acquires him, or retains him in his said condition.

Article 427. Commission of the acts abroad

The provisions of this chapter shall also apply if the offence is committed outside Libya against a Libyan.

Article 428. Abduction

1. Whoever kidnaps, arrests, incarcerates, or deprives another of his personal freedom by force, threat or deception shall be punished by a penalty of imprisonment of from six months to five years.
2. The penalty shall be imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years if the act is committed:

(A) against an asset, branch or spouse;

(B) from a public official who violates the limits of the powers relating to his employment.

(C) If the act is committed in order to obtain remuneration for release, and if the offender accomplishes its purpose, the penalty shall be imprisonment for a period not exceeding

On eight years.

LIBYAN PENAL CODE (PDF)

Article 1:

A contract is deemed void when one of the parties undertakes to provide an other party with workers to be employed by him or by his representative, in return for a sum that the employer undertakes to pay the person providing the workers and who shall pay the workers an agreed wage. In general, any contract the subject of which is the hiring of workers for an employer through a contractor or supplier is void.

Article 2:

In the cases mentioned above, an employer shall be deemed as having directly contracted the workers and shall undertake to pay them the wage paid to those originally employed by him for the same job, or by those employed for the same work with another employer. They shall enjoy all the rights due to persons of a similar status.

Article 3:

Any contract or action shall be deemed void if it seeks to defraud or evade the implementation of the two articles above, or to conceal any violation thereof, whatever the means or form it takes. This shall apply especially in those cases which the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, in a decision issued by him, finds that the circumstances surrounding them leave no scope for doubt that the main purpose is to violate the provisions of the above mentioned articles or to conceal such a violation.

Article 4:

An unemployed person may not be charged for being hired or for facilitating his employed in any job.

Article 5:

Under the provisions of this Decision, no workers rights may be relinquished.

Article 9:

An employer and the contractor or supplier who violate the provisions of this Decision shall be fined 50 pounds at least; the fine shall be multiplied by the number of workers involved in the violation.

ORDER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMAND COUNCIL, 1969 ON THE PROHIBITION OF TRAFFICKING OF THE LABOUR FORCE (PDF)

Article 10:

Every citizen is free to choose the work that suits him, alone or with others, without exploiting the exertions of another and without causing material or moral harm to others.

Article 11:

Every citizen is entitled to enjoy the fruit of his labour. Only the deductions set out by law to contribute to the general charges, or in return for services provided by society, may be made from the product of his labour.

Article 28:

A woman is has the right to the occupation that suits her, she shall not be placed in a situation where she is employed in that which does not suit her nature.

Article 29:

Relatives or others may not employ children, in work not suited to their capacities, and liable to stunt their natural growth or affect their health.

LAW NO 20 OF 1991 ON PROMOTING FREEDOMS (PDF)

Article 3:

The members of the Jamahiriyan society are, in times of peace, free in all their movements and in the choice of their residence.

Article 11:

The Jamahiriyan society guarantees the right to work. It is a right and a duty for everyone, in the limits of one’s personal effort or in association with others. Everybody has the right to exercise the work of their choice. The Jamahiriyan society is one of partners and not one of paid employees. Ownership, the fruit of labour, is sacred and protected, it can only be attacked in the public interest and with fair compensation. The Jamahiriyan society is free from the slavery of salaries, stating the right of everybody over their labour and protection. Only those who produce consume.

Article 21:

The members of the Jamahiriyan society, men or women, are equal in everything which is human. The distinction of rights between men and women is a flagrant injustice which nothing justifies. They proclaim that marriage is a fair association between two equal partners. Nobody can conclude a marriage contract by constraint, nor divorce in any other way than by mutual consent or by a fair judgement. It is unfair to dispossess the children of their mother, and the mother of her home.

Article 22:

The members of the Jamahiriyan society considers servants as the slaves of modern times, enslaved by their masters. No law governs their situation, and they have no guarantee nor protection. They live under the arbitrary nature of their masters, and are victims of tyranny. They are forced, by necessity and in order to survive, to carry out work which ridicules their dignity and human feelings. For this reason, the Jamahiriyan society proscribes recourse to servants in the home. The house must be maintained by its owners.

THE GREEN CHARTER OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE JAMAHIRIYAN ERA ADOPTED 12 JUNE 1988 (PDF)

Note: provides that young persons should not be employed before the age of 15 years, encourages guardians not to remove their children from school before the end of the basic education stage.

Note: stipulates that eligibility for marriage is acquired on attainment of 20 years of age. It further stipulates that a young girl may not be coerced into marriage against her will and that marriage should involve no compulsion or coercion. A guardian may not therefore prevent his ward from marrying the person whom she wishes to have as her husband.

Libya Law on Promoting Freedom (PDF)