Libya Edison Advanced Conference I. Background After a sudden peace unity was made between the United States and Libya by restoring full diplomatic ties and compensations for attacks, peace was made prominent between the two countries in 2011. Following the restructuring of the African nation in 2011, a revolution began between civilians going against the Libyan government and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Protests first began in 2009 due to the release of prisoner Abdelbaset Ali al-megrahi, a known terrorist, which was the spark of the onset issues involved in the Libyan crisis. The war involved the United States and the United Kingdom attacking the military planes and tanks to prevent conflict on the civilians of Libya. The end result of the war was the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi and the overthrow of his government, leading to a new government to be instituted in October 2011. The country of Libya has been in turmoil since 2011 with the downfall and elimination the dictatorship. Following the retreat of the civil war, the majority of the living relatives of the Gaddafi family were to be captured or killed in order to prevent the heirs of the family to rule over the nation, including his son Saif al-islam Gaddafi. To replace the dictatorship, the National Transitional Council, Tobruk Parliament, and the government of National Salvation was instituted. Saif plans to run for president of Libya under the Libyan popular front party in 2018, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court under crimes against humanity, which included murder and persecution. In addition to the murdering and imprisonment of the Gaddafi family, the formation of the new democratic government helped lead to the supported new government of the General National Congress(GNC) that the National Transitional Council passed its ruling to the GNC along with the Government of National Salvation, but the Tobruk parliament was opposed against the thought of it, resulting in conflicting power over the nation and a deterioration of the structure of the nation. Without a strong government, sparks within rebellion from civilians are prominent within the nation, resulting in detrimental issues to the future of the nation.
The events that sparked the beginning of the Second Libyan Civil War were primarily the attacks of local Libyans against the United States embassy, leading to four American casualties, including a United States ambassador. Another important factor that contributed to the spark of the ongoing civil war is the autonomy created by the National Transitional Council of their oil-rich nation, which is limiting the amount of oil exports into the market. Since they are not trading their 97% of their exports, Libya is not receiving trades from other nations goods. Their economy is tanking by going from a GDP of 74.76 billion dollars to 34.7. Due to an unsecure government, there has been a predicted 20 million weapons surrounding the area and at least 200 civilians and soldiers were killed in 2017 terrorist attack in Southern Libya. Congress attempted electing Ali Zeidan to create a more democratic government to avoid the further damage at the beginning of the civil war while the government continues the blockade of oil export by guard militia. Due to the non-disbandment of the oil transportation, in 2014, protests against the General National Congress resulted, leading to the beginning of the ongoing civil war. The current Libyan Civil War has resulted from from Libyan radicals wanting to overthrow the GNC. In 2015, the Libyan National Army lead by General Khalifa Haftar overthrew the GNC; in order to institute a new parliament. With rejection from the GNC from stepping down, preparations for military actions were taken from both the GNC and the Libyan National Army and the war was in full action. The primary reason that differing governing groups are wanting to have control over the nation is due to the 46.4 billion barrels of oil within the nation. The conflict between Islamists, the Libyan Army and civilian terror groups, and Nationalists, the GNC, has created numerous conflicts the past four years. From 2014 to 2016, approximately 6,000 police officers, troops, civilians, and officials were killed due to the violence and the misplacement of 217,000 Libyan citizens and approximately 43,000 who have seeked refuge in other nations. As recently as May 2, 2018, an electoral office in the capital of city of Tripoli was destroyed via an Islamic suicide bomber that resulted in the deaths of 12 employees. The people worked for the High National Election Commission and were targeted so that the democratic election process could be disrupted. Despite their attempt, the suicide bombers did not achieve
destruction of the database due to off-site storage of the voting information, which holds an additional one million new voters in Libya. With the ongoing conflict between the differing politically based groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-sham, or also referred to as ISIS, is based in locations of the oil sanctions where they are developing violence within the nation, that results in 4,500 casualties and the misplacement of around 100,000 civilians from their homes. Some of the residents of Ubari have also involved themselves in the profitable world of smuggling illicit drugs, human trafficking, and illegal weapons to survive their sparse nomadic living within the southern-libyan deserts. In January 2018, an unclaimed responsibility terrorism attack detonated a car bomb that was responsible in the deaths of 35 civilians parked in front of a mosque in Benghazi, which included a senior investigator of the arrest unit in the Libyan National Army. The worshippers were targeted in one of the deadliest attacks since the 2011 Gaddafi government was overthrown, resulting in continuous unrest and turmoil. The territory is ruled by the Libyan National Army, who are in a constant state of battle with Al-Qaeda backed by Islamic terrorists. Not only is this issue affecting Libya itself but it is also harming the surrounding nations that are near it as well. The conflict in Libya is responsible for the deterioration of the Tunisian market by 24%, which is 880 million dollars(us) that results in a 2% drop in the GDP. This results in the increase of taxes in Tunisia that many civilians can not afford due to it being a developing nation with an average wage of civilians making $12.31 dinars a day. Various human rights groups, including the UNHRC, are highly involved with the protection of misplaced migrants from Libya and other African countries being forced into slave labor and being sold at auctions in Libya from 200-400 US dollars. The undisclosed amount of victims are being subject to human right violations including torture, rape, and forced labor as farm workers. France has recommended that sanctions against the human traffickers who deprive the basic human rights to the improperly detained individuals seeking better lives in a foreign country shall be instituted. Several council members also urge to announce the root cause of the situation, such as the ongoing conflict of the Second Libyan Civil War for further investigation and protection of the civilians.
II. UN Involvement In the midst of the first civil war in the state of Libya, the United Nations Security Council(UNSC) along with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began to interfere with the crisis in Libya with NATO members that consisted of the USA, GB, France, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Canada, and Spain with also the UNSC with launching around 25,000 attacks on to Libyan government militia and officials in order to protect the citizens from their government. Due to the fall of the nation s government, the United Nations imposed for a new government to be implemented to help protect and benefit the citizens of the nation. The National Transitional Council lasted for ten months and was approved to have a seat at the United Nations. Following the conflict between the Tobruk parliament and the General National Congress in early 2014, the United Nations decided to shut down their embassies in Libya to prevent attack on their own members. Later in 2014, Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon went back to Libya in order to discuss the issue between the two different governing groups on the misplacement of 100,000 civilians throughout the nation. Additionally in 2015, there was a temporary ceasefire between the Libyan Army and the Tobruk militia after the United Nations began meeting at the Geneva conference to have a settlement between the two differing groups. With this in mind, the United Nations wanted to constitute a new government, which would be in relations to the UN, but the Tobruk parliament and the GNC ignored the UN authority that it showed. Although they did not agree at their decision, the UN reopened the embassies that they closed and reintroduced staff into Tripoli. The United Nations has taken into action implementing a free election, for the first time in forty-seven years, based off of previously rigged elections to the voting process. This included 600 women voters, breaking unprecedented numbers with a combination of 3,100 male voters. UNICEF has also reported that 36,000 children have been misplaced due to the ongoing conflict and due to the knowledge of being migrants, they are at the risk of being exploited through forced slavery, human trafficking, and/or sexual abuse. United Nations Envoy Martin Kobler, worked with the House of Representatives of Tobruk and the Tripoli based General National Congress in order to create a united government
for the nation to create stability. Their mission for the formation of a unified government, that has not been taken into action yet, is the key idea for the United Nations to develop a stable and secure government for civilians to acquiesce to. In resolution S/RES/2380, it recognizes the amount of refugees that are scattered throughout the world that have been transported across the Mediterranean Sea and the discussion of human trafficking and counter-terrorism actions. It calls for the stabilization of Libya by securing its borders in order to prevent human trafficking as well as aircraft vessels and naval ships to be stationed in preparation for smuggling of Libyan citizens. It also recognizes the importance for the basic human rights of these victims to not be violated by these heinous crimes and to have protection under International Human Rights Law and International Refugee Law. In more importance of the control over the government and strengthening of the nation, resolution S/RES/2376, it mentions that the collaboration between the three groups of the UN government, the Tripoli, and the GNC to engage in the Libyan Political Agreement in order to encourage good faith and political reasoning and also encourages that all parties should comply with the regulations of all international human and refugee rights to prevent violations of such rights. It requests for the UNSMIL to provide essential services to humanitarian aid and coordinate for of GNC efforts of stabilizing post conflict zones. In previous years, organizations such as the UNHCR and the United Nations Children s Fund have given Libya around 200,000 US dollars in water sanitation for the local communities. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya, or the UNSMIL, is a political grouping created in 2011 that accepts the concepts that Libyan authorities have introduced while expanding on their own institutions to promote a transition to a conclusion of the war. The UNSMIL consists of staff that covers human rights, women empowerment, political institutions, support programs, and the proper information given to the general public. In resolution S/RES/2323, it shows the importance of the amalgamation of security and economic arrangements of the Government of National Accord in the strengthening of the nation s government. The UNSMIL has also taken action to have observation over basic human rights as well as preventing proliferation and arms trading. The organization has gathered information over a one month period in April 2018 in Libya and documented 51 civilian casualties that were
conclusive of car bombings and the utilization of firearms in the cities of Tripoli, Kufra, Benghazi, and Surman. The UNSMIL is in a full investigation in order to determine the cause of the attacks and if any groups are behind the damage construed onto the public. They discovered that Islamist militants are behind some of the attacks and further hopes that they can help provide protection and aid to the citizens who are involved in the conflict. III. Questions to Consider 1. Has your country intervened with the Libyan crisis and if so, how? 2. How will nations help the citizens of Libya with protection from the 1,700 militia troops? 3. How will your nation provide settlements between the conflicting governments? 4. What can your country change for the issue of territorial rights of oil reserves that are at the hands of terrorist groups? 5. How can your nation help to secure humanitarian aid to Libyans? 6. In what ways can your nation improve the protection over basic human rights and of refugees? 7. What can help to constitute the protection of human trafficking of displaced civilians/refugees? 8. What has failed in the past and what can your country do to make it better?
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