Libya: NPWJ calls for youth participation in Transitional Justice at Youth Union Conference in Tripoli

Zawia, Libya, 27 January 2013


On 26 and 27 January, the Libyan Youth Union, a member of the Informal Steering Committee established within the No Peace Without Justice Libya Program, organised a two-day conference entitled “Youth and Their Priorities” in the western Libyan city of Zawia.
 
The conference brought together members of the General National Congress (GNC), representatives of the Minister of Youth, Minister of Industry and other officials, as well as more than one hundred youth civil society activists to discuss the empowerment of youth and the great potential that Libyan youth have to play after the revolution, from both an economic and social point of view.
 
No Peace Without Justice Libya Program Coordinator, Stefano Moschini, facilitated the discussion and delivered a presentation on Transitional Justice and Youth. After explaining the general elements of a TJ process and its mechanisms, both judicial and non-judicial, he brought some comparative experiences from other countries, emphasising the importance of the participation of all, including youth, in Libya’s TJ process. The presentation on Transitional Justice, and the conference as a whole, was the occasion for the Libyan Youth Union and the young participants to understand better their possible role in this process, as they represent the future of this country and played an active role in the events of 2011, raised their voices, and fought for change.
 

 
Moreover, during the presentation a questionnaire on TJ in Libya was delivered to participants, in order to ascertain their level of understanding of the topics and their preferences in terms of mechanisms to be established to ensure accountability and achieve stable reconciliation.
 
Finally, the conference was also the occasion for a first distribution of the new brochures that NPWJ has produced in collaboration with 30 Libyan partners. The document, meant to be a tool within an outreach campaign on transitional justice, provides a brief introduction of the Transitional Justice process and mechanisms, and is aimed at sharing information among a large part of the population. Several campaign are about to start in different areas of Libya, where NPWJ partners plan to disseminate information through schools, universities and other places.