Tuesday, February 11

UNSMIL Forms New Libyan Advisory Committee, A Last Hope in 15 Years of Failure

Ms. Stephanie Koury, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (DSRSG). (UNSMIL photo)

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 stems from the UN’s failure, and that of the international community, to help Libyans hold the presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021.

Then, UNSMIL established a so-called UN-led Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) which produced a unity government on 15 February 2021, whose sole task was to organize the elections on 24 December which were later postponed, to the deep disappointment of the great majority of Libyans.

“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 would 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 solve other long-standing drivers of conflict,” a mission that has been impossible since 2011.  

The Advisory Committee Members: 

  1. Abdulfatah Khalleefah Alsuweee ALSAEH
  2. Abeir Ibrahim Alsnousi IMNEINA
  3. Aboulqasim Ramadan Aboulqasim BAREEBASH
  4. Ali M H KHERALLAH
  5. Ali Saeid Ali ALBARGHATI
  6. Ameenah Khayrulllah Mohammed ALHASYAH
  7. Esam Yousuf Miftah ALMAWI
  8. Ibrahim Mousa Aid Grada
  9. Ibrahim Othman Adim ALI
  10. Jazzeh Jibrreel Mohammed SHAYTEER
  11. Kamal Mohamed H ALHOUNI
  12. Kuni Ali Erhuma ABUDA
  13. Lamees Abdul Magid A BEN SAAD
  14. Maryam Aboubakr Khaleel Amghaar MOHAMMED ADH
  15. Mohamed H Bashir OBEID
  16. Nuri Abdalla A ABDULATI
  17. Nuri Khalifa Omar ELABBAR
  18. Omar Ibrahim Omar HUSEN
  19. Wafia Ahmed Abdulmajeed SAIFALNASR
  20.  Zahra Ali Almuzoughi TEEBAR

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