Supporting Libya’s Democratic Transition through Justice and Accountability


 
Background: Followingthe Libyan revolution that began in February 2011, there is a clear desire and expectation within Libya for justice and accountability to form part of the backbone of Libya’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. In particular, Libya has to address past violations during the conflict in 2011 (and subsequent events) and during the 42 years of the Gaddafi regime, to support an effective transition from authoritarianism to democracy and the rule of law. To reach these goals, it is important for the nascent Libyan civil society have the capacity and the knowledge necessary to engage effectively with political actors and with grassroots constituencies in the conceptual development and implementation of transitional justice solutions.
 
Project goals: The overall, long-term goal is to enable Libyan civil society, human rights activists and ultimately national institutions to incorporate accountability, human rights and the rule of law in the democracy transition and post-conflict reconstruction. The specific goal is to build Libyan civil society knowledge and capacity in addressing transitional justice and to work on accountability processes, both in respect of political actors and with grass-root constituencies and those affected by human rights violations.
 
Project objectives: that by the conclusion of the project, there will be an experienced network of Libyan civil society actors who are well-versed in transitional justice issues and who are working on engaging different sectors of Libyan society on transitional justice and documenting and analysing human rights violations and crimes under international law, with a view to preparing cases for presentation to transitional justice mechanisms, including national courts. NPWJ will engage civil society from across the country, partnering with a wide range of organisations, including both more established ones and emerging ones, who have political vision but still need to strengthen their organisations.
 
The project concept combines both the provision of transitional justice information and the research and analysis of public expectations and perceptions. It also provides a tool through which areas of the country or specific types of violations that are under-represented can be identified and addressed, in particular vulnerable groups such as women, young people and children. Finally, it has a far-reaching approach, designed to provide Libyan actors with the tools for information assessment and analysis to build on the work already done documenting violations in Libya.
 
Through various capacity-building activities, the project will enable Libyan civil society actors to undertake their own work on transitional justice processes for their country. This will be achieved by combining a training component with a sustained mentoring component by NPWJ experts in-country, who will work side-by-side with or within national civil society organisations. To facilitate its geographic reach, the project will work with participants across the country and build linkages between civil society groups, activists and political actors to lay the groundwork for them to carry out coordinated work on transitional justice throughout Libya.
 
Project activities: The project will open with a public consultation on transitional justice, designed to engage a large, diverse cross-section of society, to collect public views and ideas on the topic and to engage civil society actors. This will be followed by capacity-boosting training seminars, one on a Libya-specific Outreach program and the other one on Documentation, Analysis and Case Preparation.
 
As a result of the seminars, we anticipate the development of a network of Libyan organisations with regional and thematic focus who will design and implement coordinated outreach programs, documentation and case preparation. NPWJ experts will work with members of the networks to mentor their work, meet with other actors across the country, build ongoing capacity on transitional justice, encourage expansion of networks and identify and address further training and capacity-boosting needs.
 
At the conclusion of the project, we envisage a further opportunity for public consultation for all interlocutors to discuss successes and challenges of the project and to identify areas for future work.
 
 
List of activities

 
For further information, please contact: Alison Smith, NPWJ International Criminal Justice Program Coordinator (on asmith@npwj.org; + 218 919386116 or +32-(0)2-5483-912), or Michael Gibb, NPWJ Libya Project Coordinator (on mgibb@npwj.org or +218 (0)92 457 3112).