Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations
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The Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations (GIFCA) is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with headquarters located in the Libyan capital Tripoli and offices in Chad, Germany, Philippines and Sudan.[1] GIFCA was established in 1998 upon signature of its charter in Geneva, Switzerland. The president of the Foundation is Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi.
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[edit] Subsidiaries
Elected by the Foundation's executive committee, the executive director is Salah Abdessalem who oversees GIFCA's seven subsidiaries, each of which has its own management. The subsidiary societies of GIFCA are:
- Human Rights Society;
- Libyan National Society for Drug Control;
- Society of Brothers in the South;
- De-mining Society;
- Society for the Underprivileged;
- 1973 Libyan Airline Victims Society; and,
- Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Control in Africa.
[edit] Objectives
GIFCA's objectives are:
- to support the efforts of the associated societies and coordinate their activities;
- to support the principle of voluntary work for the welfare of society and safeguarding human rights;
- to support the establishment of new NGOs based on volunteering that will implement projects and activities to the benefit of society;
- to support vulnerable segments of society;
- to work with welfare organisations for the elimination of poverty;
- to create awareness of social and humanitarian work through public information activity at national and international level; and,
- to strengthen co-operation with international and regional organisations with similar objectives.
[edit] Notable activities
The Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations has intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants and, most notably, the crisis of the HIV trial in Libya and the resulting European Union-Libyan rapprochement.[2] In January 2004, GIFCA was instrumental in resolving the compensation issue in relation to the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 when it concluded an agreement with the French UTA relatives organisation to pay $1 million to each of the 170 victims' families. Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on December 7, 2007 GIFCA's president Saif al-Gaddafi said that the Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims ($2.33 billion in total), Saif al-Gaddafi replied: "I don't know."[3]
