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Re- invest UN Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011) in a Libyan Constitutional Convention HA-7-3-11

by Tony Sanders
sanderstony@live.com


Introduction

 

Libya has a population of 6.6 million.  The median age is 24.5 years. There are 24.04 birth, 3.4 death and 20.09 infant death per 100,000.  Life expectancy is 77.65 years.  Literacy is 82.6%, 92.4% for males and 72% for females.  The GDP is $77.91-89.03 billion.  Growth rate was 3.3% in 2010.  Per capita income is $13,800.  Unemployment runs around 30% and one third of the population is estimated to live below the poverty line.

The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahirya is in trouble.  More than 1,000 protestors demanding the ouster of Col. Qadhafi have been killed.  UN Security Council Resolution 1970 of February 26, 2011 called for an arms embargo and seized the assets of Colonel Qadhafi's family and leadership involved in the suppression of dissent and violence.  The resolution, condemned the use of force against civilians that began when two protesters of the incarceration of a human rights lawyer were killed.  The Libyan Red Crescent reported that two of its medics were wounded in a deliberate attack from a base loyal to Qadhafi.
More than 1,000 people are reported to have been killed and many more injured as Mr. Qadhafi’s loyalists opened fire on peaceful civilians demanding his ouster.

There are no political parties, nor constitution, in Libya.  Col. Qadhafi himself holds no political title although he is the de facto head of state.  Attacks against civilians must cease.  Then the UN will decide whether to return Qadhafi's money or invest it in a democratically elected government.  Democracy seems to be the price for the Libyan seat on the Human Rights Council, like the Lockerbie settlement was contingent on non-permanent membership to the Security Council.  Whereas leadership has violently suppressed dissent the price is pensions now or prison in a year.  The Qadhafi regime must declare a cessation of hostilities and swear to protect the democratic process of a Constitutional convention.  It remains to be seen if Qadhafi can be so nonviolent as to be permitted to run in the elections.

The United Nations must legitimize a Constitutional Convention, that will draw the plans for the democratic election of a new regime by amending the Constitution of King Mohammed Idris el Mahdi el Senussi adopted by the National Constituent Assembly on 7 October 1951 and abolished in military coup d’état on 1 September 1969.  Following the September 1969 military overthrow of the Libyan government, the Revolutionary Command Council replaced the existing constitution with the Constitutional Proclamation in December 1969; in March 1977, Libya adopted the Declaration of the Establishment of the People's Authority.


Economy

The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which contribute about 95% of export earnings, 25% of GDP, and 80% of government revenue. The weakness in world hydrocarbon prices in 2009 reduced Libyan government tax income and constrained economic growth. Substantial revenues from the energy sector coupled with a small population give Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, but little of this income flows down to the lower orders of society. The African Development Bank is headquartered in Libya.

Libyan officials in the past five years have made progress on economic reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country into the international fold. This effort picked up steam after UN sanctions were lifted in September 2003 and as Libya announced in December 2003 that it would abandon programs to build weapons of mass destruction. The process of lifting US unilateral sanctions began in the spring of 2004; all sanctions were removed by June 2006, helping Libya attract greater foreign direct investment, especially in the energy sector. Libyan oil and gas licensing rounds continue to draw high international interest; the National Oil Corporation (NOC) set a goal of nearly doubling oil production to 3 million bbl/day by 2012. In November 2009, the NOC announced that that target may slip to as late as 2017.

Libya faces a long road ahead in liberalizing the socialist-oriented economy, but initial steps - including applying for WTO membership, reducing some subsidies, and announcing plans for privatization - are laying the groundwork for a transition to a more market-based economy. The non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for more than 20% of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural products to include the production of petrochemicals, iron, steel, and aluminum. Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75% of its food. Libya's primary agricultural water source remains the Great Manmade River Project, but significant resources are being invested in desalinization research to meet growing water demands.

History

The Italians supplanted the Ottoman Turks in the area around Tripoli in 1911 and did not relinquish their hold until 1943 when defeated in World War II. Libya then passed to UN administration and achieved independence in 1951. Following a 1969 military coup, Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI began to espouse his own political system, the Third Universal Theory. The system is a combination of socialism and Islam derived in part from tribal practices and is supposed to be implemented by the Libyan people themselves in a unique form of "direct democracy." QADHAFI has always seen himself as a revolutionary and visionary leader.

He used oil funds during the 1970s and 1980s to promote his ideology outside Libya, supporting subversives and terrorists abroad to hasten the end of Marxism and capitalism. In addition, beginning in 1973, he engaged in military operations in northern Chad's Aozou Strip - to gain access to minerals and to use as a base of influence in Chadian politics - but was forced to retreat in 1987. UN sanctions in 1992 isolated QADHAFI politically following the downing of Pan AM Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. During the 1990s, QADHAFI began to rebuild his relationships with Europe.

UN sanctions were suspended in April 1999 and finally lifted in September 2003 after Libya accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. In December 2003, Libya announced that it had agreed to reveal and end its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and to renounce terrorism. QADHAFI has made significant strides in normalizing relations with Western nations since then. He has received various Western European leaders as well as many working-level and commercial delegations, and made his first trip to Western Europe in 15 years when he traveled to Brussels in April 2004. The US rescinded Libya's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism in June 2006.

In January 2008, Libya assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2008-09 term. In August 2008, the US and Libya signed a bilateral comprehensive claims settlement agreement to compensate claimants in both countries who allege injury or death at the hands of the other country, including the Lockerbie bombing, the LaBelle disco bombing, and the UTA 772 bombing. In October 2008, the US Government received $1.5 billion pursuant to the agreement to distribute to US national claimants, and as a result effectively normalized its bilateral relationship with Libya. The two countries then exchanged ambassadors for the first time since 1973 in January 2009. Libya in May 2010 was elected to its first three-year seat on the UN Human Rights Council, prompting protests from international non-governmental organizations and human rights campaigners.

 

Open Skies on the Transitional National Council

 

The Libyan Mission to the United Nations declares that the Transitional National Council is the sole national representative of Libya.  So far it has received the membership of a few cities but waits for Tripoli and the Southern and Middle Region to join in.  The news media should be promoting dialogue between the Transitional National Council and Qadhafi.  The Interim National Council held its first meeting on March 5, 2011.  The Council derives its legitimacy from the city councils which run the liberated cities, and which had been formed by the revolutionists of the 17th February to safeguard the revolutionary gains and achieve their goals. The problem we in the international community are facing is that the UN stole and to violently suppress claims for just compensation allowed the financing of the ICC.  The European prosecutor already incited violence pushing for a "no fly zone" that the U.S. does not support.  The Treaty on Open Skies was opened for signatures in 1992 and entered into force in 2002.  "No fly zones" are not defined in Art. 2 of the Open Skies Treaty.  The “no fly zones” frequently bombed Iraq after the opening of this treaty and complete overthrow the nation after it entered into force.  The basic premise of the Open Skies Regime at Art. 2(4) is that the term "observation aircraft" means an unarmed, fixed wing aircraft designated to make observation flights, registered by the relevant authorities of a State Party and equipped with agreed sensors. The term "unarmed" means that the observation aircraft used for the purposes of this Treaty is not equipped to carry and employ weapons.  State Party shall have the right to conduct a number of observation flights over the territory of any other State Party equal to the number of observation flights which that other State Party has the right to conduct over it in Section 1(3).  “No fly zones” are ultra vires the Open Skies Regime, and “no fly zones” have been and should be prohibited as propaganda for war under Art. 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of March 23, 1976.

 

UN agencies on the ground are gearing up to provide humanitarian aid for the more than 150,000 people who have already fled to neighboring Tunisia and Egypt and the many more who remain within Libya, with the World Food Programme (WFP) launching a $38.7 million emergency operation to provide food aid to 2.7 million people in the three countries according to the UN News Centre on March 2, 2011. The High Commissioner of Human Rights can be construed to have a conflict of interest and should be recused.  She is an inside job of the ICC that had a bloody coup and seized the UN and destroyed the global economy.  I had to force her to stop sending spam emails and now they refuse to stop sending their conference links, I secretly enjoy.  She has also been witnessed inciting bacteriological and chemical warfare of the sort of abuse of power that disables Southern Africa, much like every bar certified attorney to be ultra vires the author.  She is the poster child of the poisonous politics Libya evidently has not abused much under Qadhafi.  The rules of politics are no violence.  No poison.  No home invasions.  No bar certified attorney may run for executive or legislative office.  No active duty military officer may run for civilian office.  No licensed professional may run for office irrelevant to their license.  Candidates must have a written platform we can confidently invest in.  Every party should have a stockpile of antibiotics and a physician to protect them and the public from communicable disease and chemical warfare. We are suggesting a draft constitution from each party to be recognized. And the freedom of expression in print and new media to associate safely with all civilians in Libya and worldwide.

 

Hosting the Peaceful Parties of the Libyan Constitutional Convention

 

The African Development Bank headquarters are located in Libya.  The ADB is the most promising agency to secure Libyan constitutional elections but international and national security forces of Transitional National Council and those loyal to Col. Qadhafi, must respect the immunity of the Libyan Constitutional Convention and the Bank.  The United Nations suffers from the exact same legitimacy issues as Col. Qadhafi – they both need to set down the General of the United Nations (GUN) and elect a Secretary of the United Nations as choreographed in the United Nations Charter Legitimate Edition (UNCLE).  Not only did the United Nations freeze his assets but they allowed the ICC to finance a prosecution.  The support of the United Nations for the Transitional National Council is inadequate to garner full geographic and moral control.  The African Development Bank lends a sense of neutrality to the terra firma.  They have lived long and prospered under Qadhafi.  They are also ideologically inclined to finance a peaceful democratically elected government, as they have with mixed results across the continent, over the past few decades. 

 

The African Development Bank must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of Southern Africa and separate both civilian and military government and the bar and the executive and legislative branches, to prevent outbreaks of violence and disease.  Section 4 of the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of February 13, 1946 extends to the archives of United Nations documents, by whomever they be composed or held.  To enjoy the finest immunity the Convention has to provide national parties should form around different published drafts of Libyan Constitutions.  The Transitional National Council cannot be considered more than one political party.  The Transitional National Council is challenged to legitimize their petition by promulgating an English draft of the Constitution on the website of the Libyan Ambassadors to the United Nations.  Qadhafi has not been disqualified by the ICC until a year from February 26, 2011. Perhaps all he needs is international recognition of his Constitutional Proclamation of December 1969 and Declaration of the Establishment of the People's Authority March 1977.  The most peaceful form of transitional government imaginable is that Libyans would unite on the Internet and divide into different political parties on the basis of which draft of the Constitution and elective offices they want to be ratified by referendum. 

 

I have taken the liberty to write the Libyan Constitutional Union Chairman Mohamed Ben-Ghalbon to ask that the blinking lights on their website be turned off.  Flashing lights provoke epileptic seizure and removing this incitement would help to protect the diplomatic immunity of the Internet English documents archived by the Constitutional Union under Section 4 of the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of February 13, 1946   Notwithstanding the potential health risk to the public I have updated the link to this Constitution of 1951 in the World Atlas.  I do not expect the link to last long.  But do pray they turn off the flashing light.  And hope that democratization efforts focus around a constitutional convention and referendum within the year.  Libyan political development has stalled at socialist military dictatorship since 1969 prohibited the King’s Constitution of 1951.  While Qadhafi has done well for the public health and economy, the younger generation is tired of being violently suppressed by an illegitimate military dictatorship.  Being only 24 years old on average Libyan revolutionaries do not necessarily realize that those who bear arms and the United Nations are equally illegitimate military dictatorships.  Political parties must be reprimanded if they associate too closely with armed groups, revolutionary or military under Art. 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of March 23, 1976 that prohibits by law any propaganda for war or advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.  To ensure respect for the rule of law a Constitutional Convention and Referendum should be the primary focus for nascent political parties.

 

North African Politics

 

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) tables indicate that Egypt has the lowest voter turnout in any democratic nation with 16.4% in presidential elections and 19.5% in parliamentary elections.  It is not surprising Egyptians ousted Hosni Mubarak after three decades.  Belying high levels of voter turnout in Tunisiat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was able to keep power and retain total political control by providing a relatively high standard of living, at least in urban areas, before he was ousted at gunpoint. But Egypt and Tunisia at least have regular elections.  The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya does not have any sort of electoral laws or voter registration system implemented.  It is no wonder that Libyan dissatisfaction with their leader came to armed resistance, whereas Col. Qadhafi’s claim to national leadership is entirely predicated on his military coup of 1969 that ousted King Mohammed Idris el Mahdi el Senussi.  The Libyan dictator has been at odds with his diplomatic mission to the United Nations for some time and H.E. Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki used his independence to be elected President of the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 10 June 2009.  The non-permanent membership of Libya to the Security Council resulted in Qadhafi settling the tort of negligence for the Lockerbie bombing in August of 2009.  The Libyan chair on the Human Rights Council triggered a revolution.  The Libyan Mission to the United Nations now openly advocates for the revolutionary Transitional National Authority.  Let a multi-party democracy grow from the current two party system of Qadhafi and the UN Mission.  The African Development Bank is encouraged to collaborate with the UN Democracy Fund to host a Constitutional Convention open to Libyan political parties now for a Referendum by the end of the year.  Voter registration should be entirely voluntary, by valid identification, without any disclosure of residential information, with absentee ballots for the estimated 150,000 refugees. 

North African Politics

Country

Election Type

Voter Turnout

Registration

Voting Age Population

Population

Algeria

Parliamentary

35.51% (2007)

18,760,400 (2007)

20,806,940 (2007)

33,333,216 (2007)

 

Presidential

58.07% (2004)

18,097,225 (2004)

19,605,085 (2004)

32,818,500 (2004)

Egypt

Parliamentary

28.13% (2005)

31,253,417 (2005)

44,509,556 (2005)

77,505,756 (2005)

 

Presidential

22.95% (2005)

31,826,284 (2005)

44,509,556 (2005)

77,505,756 (2005)

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

 

 

 

3,955,176(2011est)

6,597,960(2011)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morocco

Parliamentary

37.0% (2007)

15,462,362 (2007)

20,555,314(2007)

33,241,259 (2007)

 

Presidential

 

 

 

 

Tunisia

Parliamentary

86.41% (2004)

4,877,905 (2004)

6,565,677(2004)

9.974,722 (2004)

 

Presidential

91.52% (2004)

4,877,905 (2004)

6,565,677(2004)

9.974,722 (2004)

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and CIA World Factbook July 2011