TRIPOLI – Strengthening Libya’s conflict-prevention architecture, consolidating the 2020 Ceasefire Agreement, addressing structural drivers of instability were key topics discussed in the second five-day meeting of the Structured Dialogue Security Track.
Facilitated by the Bureau members and UNSMIL, track members met, between 1 -5 February, with Libyan security actors, notables, and civil society. They agreed that sustainable peace depends on unifying security and military institutions, integrating the South into national mechanisms, improving border security, withdrawing foreign forces and mercenaries when conditions are permissive and enforcing the Tripoli Truce of May 2025.
Members also discussed the importance of mediation efforts in communities, agreeing that the country needed to shift from reactive crisis management to a proactive preventative system capable of reducing violence and strengthening social cohesion. They highlighted the central role of community actors, women, youth and persons of disability have in mitigating conflict dynamics their areas across Libya and emphasized the importance of inclusive, locally grounded approaches to prevention and the value of grass-roots mediation.
“Women have a significant and important role in any mediation process. In Libya the role of women in mediation varies depending on the nature of the conflict,” said Ahmed Omar, a Security Track member from Ajdabyia. He added that if a conflict was institutional in nature, women can play a key role, especially if they are knowledgeable about the nature of the problem being mediated. “In general, women have a place and a role in building and unifying institutions and in mediation, but they still need more support from the state to be involved in mediation processes,” he said.
To achieve this proactive mediation approach, members recommended the establishment of a national framework for mediation and conflict prevention. They hoped that such a system would coordinate accredited mediators, maintain a national database, and apply standards and a code of conduct to ensure neutrality.
"Community violence reduction through mechanisms like local and national mediation are essential to ensuring that local disagreements can be discussed and local solutions found to conflicts across Libya,” said Special Representative of the Secretary General, Hanna Tetteh, who joined the discussion on Wednesday. “Many conflicts are not national issues; communities can be brought together to find local solutions which help them find ways to safer more stable conditions.”
A recurring theme throughout this week’s session was the necessity of including the Fezzan region into security structures, given the region's economic and strategic relevance . All participants agreed on the need for unified military institutions which ensure the integration of the South. Members recommended developing an incremental roadmap to restructure forces in the west, to lay the foundation of military unification. They also discussed criminalizing militia recruitment.
Recommendations also focused on unifying the government and security institutions, supporting and strengthening the efforts of the Joint Military Commission 5+5 to fully implement the ceasefire agreement. They also agreed that adopting a comprehensive, binding, national code of honour which looks at limiting hate speech, ensuring human rights and the rule of law are respected, would help build national common ground. The necessity of the State’s monopoly over weapons was highly underscored, and they recommended that members of non-state armed actors be enrolled in a Libyan-led national economic and development programme to help reintegrate and rehabilitate them into civilian life.
“All the topics discussed were crucial, focusing on issues at the heart of the Libyan crisis,” said Omar. “Each member of the dialogue, despite their differing perspectives, contributed ideas that largely converged on reaching important recommendations.” He emphasized that all the discussions and ideas stemmed from a genuine desire “to end the chaos, unify institutions, and hold general elections”.
After Ramadan, the Security Track members will meet again and discuss security sector reform and governance. Along with the other Structured Dialogue Tracks—governance, economy, and human rights and reconciliation—they will look to identify mechanisms to ensure the implementation of their recommendations.
The work of the Structured Dialogue aligns with UNSMIL’s mandate to use its good offices to facilitate an inclusive, Libyan-owned and -led political process, without determining outcomes, and to advance consensus on governance arrangements toward elections and long-term stability.
