Mr. President,
10. In spite of the numerous difficulties and uncertainties, I am pleased to report that the Libyan constitution-making process has made some progress, with the adoption by the General National Congress of a law for the election of the Constitution Drafting Assembly.
11. UNSMIL had advocated for special measures for better representation of women in the constitution drafting assembly. However, the adopted electoral law provides limited representation for women, granting them six reserved seats in the sixty member assembly, lower than the 16% allotted to them in the July 2012 elections to the General National Congress.
12. For their part, cultural and ethnic minorities were granted six reserved seats. Some of their influential organisations and personalities are quite assertive in demanding that constitutional issues pertaining to their cultural and linguistic rights should be decided upon by consensus rather than by a two-thirds majority of the sixty member assembly, as stipulated in the Constitutional Declaration. The constitutional drafting process presents an opportunity for the Libyan people to forge a new social contract that will govern the new Libya, making imperative therefore that it be transparent, consultative and inclusive.
13. A new Board for the permanent High National Election Commission was recently selected. With the full support of the UN Electoral Team in the various areas of its work, the Commission is actively engaged in planning and preparing the elections to the Constitution Drafting Assembly.
Mr. President,
14. The security problems in Libya are still, arguably, the predominant concern for the Libyan people. Since my last briefing to the Council, there have been armed clashes in Tripoli between rival revolutionary brigades. Due to the limited state capacity to secure the capital, the newly elected President of the General National Council, Mr. Nouri Abu Sahmein assigned the task of protecting the city to the Libyan Revolutionaries’ Operation Room, a coalition of revolutionary brigades.
15. Tensions among various political, tribal and armed groups have also escalated into confrontations in various parts of the country resulting in several deaths. Assassinations of security figures, mostly in the east, and more recently of political activists and journalists, improvised explosive devices, attacks against members of the diplomatic community, threats against the UN and general criminality continue in the face of weak state security institutions. Border security is increasingly a critical issue that the authorities have yet to address efficiently.