Summary:

On 14 November 2024, the Council of Ministers of Tripoli’s government presided by PM Abdelhamid Debeibah issued a decision to establish the General Department for the Protection of Public Morals within the Ministry of Interior.  

The decision specifies that the new department’s role includes receiving complaints and controlling acts that contradict “public morals” and “values” in public places, including cafes and restaurants but also on social media. 

This decision comes a few days after the Libyan Ministry of the Interior, Imed Trabelsi, announced the creation of a “Morals Police” to impose restrictions on women’s dress, mixing of women and men, and requiring women to get permission from a male family member for travel. 

The statements from Trabelsi sparked criticism from international human rights organizations like Amnesty International, which described the creation of “morals police” as a discriminatory act of repression and called for the end of any plans to restrict women’s rights.  

Outlook: 

For many Libyans, the statements of the Minister were ironic and not taken seriously until PM Abdelhamid Debeibah approved the establishment of the new Public Morals police department. 

The timing of the Minister’s statements and the approval of Tripoli’s government to establish the new department  led many observers to conclude that these were a part of a maneuver to win the support of conservative voters in the municipal elections which took place on 16 November. 

Observers also remarked that the new measures could be counterproductive and easily exploited by Libya’s Eastern government to win more votes in the municipal elections.  

The new restrictive measures are likely to undermine Tripoli’s international reputation among Western countries and NGOs which have already reported on human rights violations such as forced disappearances, torture, and mass arbitrary detention. 

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