Tripoli, 19 January 2018 –  The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this week,  gathered over 60 local mediators to share experiences in facilitating peace and ceasefire agreements.  The three-day workshop, organized as part of the UN’s Towards National Reconciliation in Libya Project, and supported by the Libyan Dialogue and Reconciliation Organization, managed to bring activists, community leaders and elders from across Libya to prepare for the establishment of a national mediators’ network.   

During the workshop, participants identified the main challenges obstructing their work, such as: external interferences; the lack of neutrality and politicization of some reconciliation actors; the absence of a unified reconciliation institution for Libya; and the lack of coordination between the actors of reconciliation. The weak involvement of youth and women in mediation efforts, as well as the lack of reparation measures and the absence of state support, were highlighted among the key impediments to the implementation of local reconciliation agreements.

“The event was excellent”, stated one local mediator from Al-Bayda, “as this is the first time  mediators from East, West, South and Central Libya had such opportunity to discuss the challenges faced in facilitating local reconciliations.”

After three days of fruitful deliberations, the participants recommended the creation of a unified and independent national body to support and monitor all reconciliation efforts at the local level. They also called on the authorities to adopt a roadmap for national reconciliation that has buy-in from all the parties engaged in reconciliation efforts. Finally, they urged for stronger coordination between all mediators, bodies and institutions working for reconciliation throughout Libya. 

Participants to the forum committed to work on the establishment of a national network of local mediators to enhance information sharing and provide capacity support to reconciliation actors in the country.