Libya – Supporting the Justice And Security Sector Through Property Rights: Synthesis Report

The USAID-funded project “Supporting the Justice and Security Sector through Property Rights in Libya” (SJSSPR) is a preliminary initiative designed to address a major root cause of current social and political instability in Libya: namely, housing and land disputes. During the SJSSPR Inception Mission in November-December 2012, key challenges were assessed, goals defined, and opportunities to initiate specific supportive activities were identified. Working intermittently during the short period of six months since that initial mission, SJSSPR has introduced alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques to local government and non-governmental stakeholders and fostered community and national dialogue on housing, land tenure and property rights (HLP) policy options in Libya.

This succinct report provides a summary of findings and recommendations based on the conclusions of the following activities:

  • An Inception Mission in November-December 2012
  • A property rights policy roundtable in Tripoli on June 18, 2013
  • A legal report reviewing the Draft Land Law issued by the Ministry of Justice, which was finalized in August 2013 (“Legislating Property Restitution in Libya”)
  • A series of focus group discussions with specific interest groups (women’s groups, legal professionals, and businessmen) held in Tripoli from June 23-27, 2013

In addition, the SJSSPR team has conducted a second policy dialog roundtable in Tripoli at the end of August, the summary results of which are included in Annex I.