Regional Strategic Meeting in Tripoli on transitional justice

Tripoli, Libya, 4 September 2012

 
On 4 September 2012 No Peace Without Justice convened a regional strategy meeting in Tripoli to bring together existing members of its Steering Committee from Tripoli, Misurata and Zawiya with a number of prospective new partners.
 
The strategy meeting had two main objectives. First, to build capacity of participating organisations to carry out awareness-raising and outreach activities, in support of an eventual national consultation on transitional justice and to develop an action plan for such activities. Second, to position the Steering Committee as the vehicle through which such an action plan would be implemented and to seek to expand the number of organisations participating in the Steering Committee.
 
Amel Ouahchi, judge and the rapporteur-general of the Tunisian National Fact-Finding Commission on Abuses Committed during Recent Events served as trainer and moderator for the strategy meeting. The meeting was divided into three workshops and a concluding strategy session including some practice exercises on how to design an outreach program in Libya.
 
The first session started with a basic overview on the objectives of transitional justice, also sharing some reflections from the Tunisian experience to date. This was followed by a broad discussion among participants on a range of issues, including: how and whether regional differences should influence or affect a transitional justice process; the need for legal reform and the new constitution; the specific interests of the Amazigh people; strong frustration with the absence of justice for those whose family members were killed during the revolution and for property crimes during the Gaddafi era; the position of the Tawargha people and of Libyans abroad; and the desire to move from discussion to action and advocacy with the government.
 

 
In the second session, attention was focused on (a) the need for a national consultation process to shape a future transitional justice process for Libya; and (b) the importance of outreach to any such national consultation. A general presentation on the link between outreach and awareness-raising and a national consultation process -emphasising the importance of bringing more groups and stakeholders into the discussion- was followed by three brief presentations on other examples of outreach and awareness-raising. First, the Voice of Libyan Women presented on two outreach campaigns, one on verbal abuse of women and girls and the second on elections. Second, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting presented on using the media as part of outreach and awareness-raising and described the current expansion of media outlets in Libya and, as a result, their need for content for an increased number of newscasts. Third, the Mothers of the Martyrs from Zawiya described their voter education activities around the elections, including visiting schools, religious schools and banks and making posters and sound recordings.
 
The last session, chaired by the Free Media Centre, gave an overview of the state of the media and Free Media Centre’s activities to upgrade the quality of the media in Libya.
 
The participants then divided into two groups and undertook the exercise of designing an outreach activity or activities on transitional justice, identifying their target audience, the information they want to convey and the means they would use to do so. Each group then presented its work. Ideas presented included making films or documentaries, reaching out to universities, schools and mosques, workshops and additional trainings.
 
 
On Monday 3 September 2012 NPWJ also carried out a basic training on transitional justice in Misrata for the women’s organisation called ‘Nukhba’.
 
The training was delivered by Amel Ouahchi and was physically hosted by the “Union of Misurata Charities”. There were 10 woman participants from Nukhba, plus a representative from another organisation called “Hands of Compassion”.
 
The aim of this training was to enlarge future possible inclusion and involvement of women from Misurata in the Steering Committee and to facilitate their participation in formative sessions. At the end of the session, their main request was for additional training, to provide them with the knowledge and capacity to carry out outreach activities on transitional justice. They also requested a workshop on outreach and awareness-raising.
 
 
 
For further information, please contact Michael Gibb, NPWJ Libya Project Coordinator, on mgibb@npwj.org or +218 (0)92 457 3112.