Tripoli—A new advisory committee has been established by the UN mission in Libya that includes 20 members who are tasked to develop proposals to solve the 15-year old Libyan crisis. This committee could be the last hope for Libyans as previous advisory committees and numerous political summits held in many world capitals have squarely failed to do so.
In a statement issued on Tuesday 4 February 2025, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said, “the role of the Advisory Committee will be developing technically sound and politically viable proposals for resolving outstanding contentious issues to enable the holding of elections, building on existing Libyan framework and laws including the Libyan Political Agreement, the LPDF Roadmap and the 6+6 Electoral laws.”
The establishment of the Advisory Committee comes as a result of many months of intensive consultations by Ms. Stephanie Koury, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (DSRSG), who held numerous meetings with political, social, economic and cultural officials and actors in the country.
UNSMIL said it “identified” the Libyan personalities “based on UNSMIL’s assessment of their experience and capabilities.” The Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting next week in Tripoli.
“The selection of the Committee members was based on the combination of following criteria: professionalism; expertise in legal, constitutional, and/or electoral issues; ability to build compromise; and understanding of the political challenges facing Libya. UNSMIL also took into consideration cultural components, geographic and gender balance,” said the statement.
However, Libyans remain rather skeptical of UNSMIL’s approach and the establishment of the committee itself. This skepticism on the previous failure of the UN when it failed to fulfill its promise to help in holding general elections in December 2021. Then UNSMIL, also, established a so-called UN-led Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF). Although LPDF produced a unity government, it failed to hold a national presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021 as scheduled.
“The Advisory Committee is not a decision-making body or a dialogue forum. It is time-bound and is expected to conclude its work in a short time frame. The proposals formulated by the Advisory Committee will be submitted to UNSMIL for consideration for the subsequent phase of the political process. UNSMIL will facilitate interactions of the Committee with concerned institutions,” it added.
The critiques also point at the huge tasks which UNSMIL said it do in parallel to working with the Advisory Committee, including its claim to “facilitate Libyan efforts to address economic reforms, unification of security and military institutions, and other long-standing drivers of conflict,” a mission that has been impossible since 2011.
The Advisory Committee Members:
- Abdulfatah Khalleefah Alsuweee ALSAEH
- Abeir Ibrahim Alsnousi IMNEINA
- Aboulqasim Ramadan Aboulqasim BAREEBASH
- Ali M H KHERALLAH
- Ali Saeid Ali ALBARGHATI
- Ameenah Khayrulllah Mohammed ALHASYAH
- Esam Yousuf Miftah ALMAWI
- Ibrahim Mousa Aid Grada
- Ibrahim Othman Adim ALI
- Jazzeh Jibrreel Mohammed SHAYTEER
- Kamal Mohamed H ALHOUNI
- Kuni Ali Erhuma ABUDA
- Lamees Abdul Magid A BEN SAAD
- Maryam Aboubakr Khaleel Amghaar MOHAMMED ADH
- Mohamed H Bashir OBEID
- Nuri Abdalla A ABDULATI
- Nuri Khalifa Omar ELABBAR
- Omar Ibrahim Omar HUSEN
- Wafia Ahmed Abdulmajeed SAIFALNASR
- Zahra Ali Almuzoughi TEEBAR