The Governance Track of the Structured Dialogue, with the facilitation of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, is having its first meeting this week—but members started work weeks ago.
Bureaus for each of the thematic tracks—which also include security, economy, and human rights and reconciliation—have independently met several times since they were elected during the Structured Dialogue inaugural plenary on 14-15 December and established inter-sessional coordination mechanisms to pre-discuss and refine proposals before submitting them for formal deliberation and decision-making. The Women’s Caucus of the Structured Dialogue also convened a two-day follow-up meeting with close to 100 Libyan women experts, activists, human rights defenders and diaspora, including young women, women with disabilities, and women from marginalised regions or groups.
“Discussions to date reflect a good level of commitment and coordination,” said Special Representative of the Secretary-General Hanna Tetteh. “Participants have demonstrated ownership of the process and a willingness to listen to each other and engage constructively going forward.”
The first order of business is developing preliminary lists of the specific issues for the Dialogue to address, which will be presented for confirmation during upcoming meetings of each of the Structured Dialogue’s thematic tracks. The Governance Track will wrap up its meeting on 15 January; the security and economic groups will meet from 18 to 22 January; and the human rights and reconciliation group will meet from 25 to 29 January.
In their preparations, Governance Track bureau members said they discussed the agenda and next steps, prioritising the need to provide recommendations to address the current political deadlock, advance the electoral process, and clarify the mandate and timeframe of transitional institutions to bring the country to national elections.
"We expect that this first meeting of the Governance Track will mark a shift from a mindset of crisis management to one focused on state-building," a member of the Governance Track Bureau said. "Maintaining a space for dialogue and respecting diverse viewpoints is essential for any process aimed at establishing the foundations of governance and moving beyond temporary crisis management."
The economic bureau’s conversations have centred on economic diversification, oil and gas, economic diversification, and public finance management, while the security bureau has reported to UNSMIL early convergence around the importance of addressing practical, people-centred security issues that are nationally relevant, but grounded in local realities. The security bureau intends to propose election security as an urgent point of discussion.
The human rights and reconciliation bureau has reported interest in addressing initially human rights in detention, including arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and protecting a free civic space—among other things.
All bureaus have been briefed on the results of a public survey conducted in November, gathering input from the public, to inform the selection of topics to be discussed across the Structured Dialogue.
The finalized list of topics will be published after they are agreed upon by the full membership of each thematic track.
“As the Structured Dialogue moves into its next phase, the responsibility lies with members to translate this momentum into focused and substantive discussions with pragmatic and implementable recommendations, that can address the current challenges facing the country” SRSG Tetteh said. “UNSMIL will continue to facilitate an environment that supports constructive engagement and consensus-building.”
The Structured Dialogue, which is part of the political roadmap UNSMIL presented to the Security Council in August, is expected to make concrete recommendations to help create a conducive environment for national elections and unify and strengthen state institutions, by examining short- and long-term governance, economy, security, and human rights and reconciliation issues. Its work will lay the foundation for a national vision that will shape the path to long-term stability.
