By Hui Min Neo

GENEVA, Feb 24, 2011 (AFP) - The UN Human Rights Council is responding to the Libya crisis by calling an unprecedented special session against one of its own members on Friday, but campaigners want Libya excluded from the UN body.

"It is a good sign that a member state of the council is not immune to a special session," observed Peter Splinter from Amnesty International.

"But related to that is the question: Should Libya continue to have membership rights or is this the time to invoke the provision... that envisages the suspension of membership rights of a member that commits gross and systematic violations?"

"That threshold of systematic violations has long been passed in recent events and the General Assembly should look at the suspension of Libya," he said.

Libya was elected in May 2010 to the council after obtaining 155 votes in a secret ballot by the 192 UN member states at the General Assembly in New York.

In its candidacy for membership, Tripoli pledged it is "fully committed to the promotion and protection of human rights principles at the national, regional and international levels."

But ongoing popular revolts have prompted Moamer Kadhafi's regime to order a violent crackdown, with the army and airforce sent in to crush opponents through live fire and aerial bombardments.

The deadly repression that has claimed hundreds of lives has prompted US President Barack Obama to dispatch Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to next week's opening of the Human Rights Council's 16th session to come up with a strategy on Libya.

It has also prompted over 50 countries to sign a call for the Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Libya on Friday, the first such sitting against a council member.

The president of the Geneva-based council, Sihasak Phuangphetkeow, said the special meeting is a "reflection of the concerns that all of us share with regards to the situation in Libya and what's happening now."

According to a draft resolution for the session, the council will try to set up a UN-led international investigation into the violence to ensure "full accountability."

But for many non governmental organisations, this does not go far enough. They want to invoke a provision which allows for the suspension of a member state if it has been found to commit serious human rights violations.

A group of NGOs are planning to submit a letter to the General Assembly pushing for Libya's suspension, AFP has learnt.

For the exclusion to take effect, the rulebook says two-thirds of those present at the General Assembly must approve the suspension.

"Libyas membership on the worlds top human rights body is a moral outrage," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a pro-Israel lobby group.

"Every day that Moamer Kadhafi continues to sit as a judge of human rights is a stain on the reputation of the UN. We urge the council to call for Libyas removal."

Asked if Libya's membership tainted the council's credibility, Phuangphetkeow said: "I don't think so."

US ambassador Eileen Donahoe told AFP: "Kadhafi is not the Libyan people. He is the problem, they are not."

Phuangphetkeow said that the council's credibility has been strengthened by the swift manner in which it has been able to react to a crisis.

"It is very important to the credibility to be able to react when there is a serious situation."

The Thai ambassador also said he hoped that any resolutions against Libya would be taken seriously by Tripoli.

"If there is a unity... with members, observers of the council speaking with one voice, I think concerned countries will have to listen and I hope, be cooperative," he said.

He also spoke out against precipitous action to exclude Libya

"Let's address this situation first, then other issues of course we'll have to discuss in the council if members are going to discuss," he stressed.

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Copyright AFP 2011.