Humanitarian Inverntion in Libya
Sean XiaosuTian
Erina Fuse
Introduction
Libya
Muammar Gaddafi
 1942-2011
 Libyan Revolutionary and
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Politician
Ruled Libya for 42 years
Rise in power at 1969 Coup
d'état
Seeks unification of Africa and
the Arab World
Libyan Civil War
Historical Background
-Arab Spring
-Tribes and Clan
-Oil Resources
Historical Background
-Arab Spring Tunisia
December 2010, series of violent demonstrations started in
Tunisia. Ben Ali who dictated Tunisia for 23 years fled into
exile. Transition to democracy started with new
administration.
 Egypt
Inspired by the uprising in Tunisia, Egyptian Revolution took
place. President Mubarak was convicted to life in prison.
Historical Background
-Tribes and clan Tripolitania
Warfalla, Zuwarah, Zintan
 Sirte
Qaddadfa, Magarha, Marharba
 Cyrenaica
Zuwayya, Majabra, Abaydat
 Fezzan
Tubou, Tuareg
Historical Background
-Oil Resources Rich in oil resource in the Eastern Libya
 Gaddafi focused development in Sirte and Tripoli
Crisis in Libya
Libyan Civil War
 February
Start of Libyan Civil War
Most of Libya under control of Libyan opposition
 March
Gaddafi’s force retakes the majority of cities
UN Resolution 1973 adopted
France, UK, US intervened in Libya
NATO intervenes
 August
End of Gaddafi’s regime
 October
Gaddafi killed by the rebels
Timeline of Libyan Crisis
 February 16
demonstrations on human activist took place at Benghazi
‘There is nothing serious here. These are just young people
fighting each other’
 February 23
UN Secretary-General condemns egregious violation of
human rights to crush the revolt
 February 26
UN imposes UN Resolution 1970
Timeline of Libyan Crisis
 March 17
UN votes to impose no-fly zone and take ‘all necessary measures’
to protect civilians. This was approved by 10 votes.
 March 19
French, UK, US military forces began their first action for no-fly
zone ‘to deny the Libyan regime from using force against its own
people’
UN Resolution 1970
Adopted on 26 February 2011
 Immediate end of violence and to respect international
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humanitarian and human rights law
Arms embargo
Prevention of mercenaries
Asset freeze for Gaddafi and his relatives
Travel ban for the members closely related to the Gaddafi
regime
UN Resolution 1973
Adopted on 17 March 2011
 Complete end to violence and all attacks and abuse of civilians
 No-fly zone over Libya
 Authorizes ‘all necessary means to protect civilians and civilian-
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populated areas’
Ban on all Libyan designated flights
Strengthens arms embargo and action against mercenaries
Asset freeze on assets owned by Libyan authorities
Extends travel ban and assets freeze of resolution 1970
Action of International Community
-NATO
-Arab League
-African Union
-Russia
-China
Action of NATO
 March 31
Starts Operation Unified Protector; arms embargo, no-fly zone
and actions to protect civilian and civilian centers
 April 30
launches missile attack in Tripoli
Action of NATO
 June 1
NATO extends its mission for 90 days
 June 27
International Criminal Court
issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi and his brother in law for
crimes against humanity including murder and persecution
 August 18
International Criminal Court plans to negotiate the transfer of
Gaddafi and his members for crime against humanity
 August 24
Rebels captured Gaddafi’s son and controlled Tripoli
Action of Arab League
 22 February
Criticized indiscriminate bombing and mercenary’s use of heavy
weapons
 12 March
Call on security council to impose no-fly zone over Libya
 20 March
Moussa (Egyptian diplomat) criticizes that bombing is not the aim
of no-fly zone
 28 August
National Transitional Council formally recognized as the Libyan
new assembly
Action of African Union
 20 March
Demanded ceasefire of the aerial bombing
 30 June-1 July
Malabo Summit: roadmap consultation, criticism on French
army weapon provision
 20 September
National Transitional Council formally recognized as the
Libyan new assembly
Action of Russia
 19 March
criticized aerial bombing of multinational military and
demanded early ceasefire
 1 September
National Transitional Council formally recognized as the
Libyan new assembly
 21 October
 Russian FM Lavrov criticizes NATO that the resolution did
not aim to murder Gaddafi
Action of China
 23 February – 8 March
Emergency escape of 3860 Chinese in Libya
 20 March
Shows Negation insights on the aerial bombing of multinational
military (not a direct criticism)
 July
Chinese FM Yang holds individual conference with Libyan FM
Obeidi and Libyan executive chairman Jibril
 22 August
suggests approval of National Transitional Council
Recap: conventional wisdom
 Nationwide peaceful democratic uprising vs. ruthless dictator
 Gaddafi’s bloody agenda for ethnic cleansing, killed thousands of
peaceful protesters
 Gaddafi threatened a bloodbath in Benghazi
 NATO intervened on legitimate ground and was able to address
the widespread humanitarian crisis in Libya
 Conclusion: NATO prevented a Rwandan like genocide; actions in
Libya marks a triumph for R2P
Libya: the R2P test case?
 The origin of R2P
 If a state is unable to protect its civilians from genocide, war
crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, then
the responsibility to protect falls on the international
community
 Legally, morally and politically it has only one justification for
the use of force: protect innocent civilians
Libya: the R2P test case?
 Libya: UNSC authorized the use of force for human
protection purpose without the consent of host state for the
first time since the adoption of R2P
 Similar cases in the past:
Resolution 794
Resolution 929
Libya: the R2P test case?
 Libya is an exceptional case in 4 ways
*Gaddafi’s actions and words threatened massive scale of
ethnic cleansing
*Notorious standing of Gaddafi’s regime in the region
frame
*Conflict broke out in an extremely short
*little geopolitical significance of the
country
time
Criticisms on International Community
Criticism #1
 Resolution 1973 was not tightly drawn
 NATO’s actions had exceeded the UN Resolution
 Criticisms from Russia, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa
 http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/19/liby
a.nato.analysis/index.html
civilian protection vs. regime change
 The desire to protect innocent civilians gave rise to UN
Resolution, but the operation switched its objective to regime
change
 4 key pieces of evidence
*Targeted retreating security forces
*Targeted security forces in areas that were strongholds for
Gaddafi
*Provided intelligence and arms to rebels
*Continued bombing after rebels rejected cease-fire offers
 Likely consequences of NATO’s overly expansive interpretation of
Resolution 1973
Criticism #2
 Should (which) regional organizations be given the gatekeeping
role when relevant institutions adopt different positions on the
authorization of force?
 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), the League of Arab States (LAS) and African
Union (AU)
 The League of Arab States played a decisive role in changing the
U.S. foreign policy and brokering the deal with China and Russia
 Future outlook: Syria?
Evaluation
R2P criterion
Just Cause
○
Right Intention
△
Last Resort
○/△
Proportional Means
△
Reasonable Prospects: short term
○
Reasonable Prospects: long term
△
Right Authority
○/△
Just Cause: ○
 ICISS report: military intervention for the purpose of
protecting civilians can be justified: large scale loss of life or
ethnic cleansing
 Gaddafi’s ominous ‘cockroaches’ threat and promised
cleansing
Just Intention: △
 Is civilian protection the ultimate goal or is there an ulterior
motive behind the intervention?
 NATO established no-fly zone and protected the Libyan people
from imminent danger
 Intervention was taken place on a multilateral basis and supported
by regional opinions and people for whose benefit is intended
 Critics: the goal of protecting civilians became subordinated to the
goal of overthrowing the regime
Last Resort: ○/△
 The last resort criterion requires alternative measures be
attempted before resorting to military force.
 Resolution 1970: Arms embargo, assets freeze, travel ban and
referring the case to ICC
 Gaddafi’s forces were closing on Benghazi, left the SC a
binary option
 Critics: little effort has been devoted into searching for a
diplomatic solution
Proportional Means: △
 The scale of the intervention should be the minimum necessary to
secure the humanitarian objective in question.
 NATO-led operations alleviate humanitarian crisis in Libya, but
the military actions had gone out of the scope that they were
originally agreed to.
 Rebels relied on NATO’s airstrikes to soften pro-Gaddafi area
 Amr Moussa: “What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of
imposing a no-fly zone. What we want is the protection of civilians
and not the shelling of more civilians.”
Reasonable Prospects: short term: ○
 NATO-led airstrike operation has achieved the humanitarian objective
as it halted the humanitarian crisis in Libya
Reasonable Prospects: short term: △
 Murky: gun battles between rival militias, weak governance and
enforcement force, national instability
 Whether the prompt response to the humanitarian crisis in Libya
reflects a paradigm shift that has found its discursive manifestation in
new international norm of the R2P remains uncertain
Right Authority: ○/△
 The intervention was authorized by the UNSC through the
adoption of Resolution 1973.
 The resolution specified the purpose of the use of force to
protect civilians and limited the means to achieve that
specific end
 By taking the side with the rebels and directly targeting
Qadhafi, NATO’s actions exceeded the UN mandate in
breach of the Charter Law
Post-War Libya
 First free election in the last six decades, took place on July 7,2012
 New government: constitutional democracy respecting political
pluralism and human rights?
 Oil rich, eastern Libya threatens secession
 Militia violence and turf wars have kept the country in chaos
*The ethnic cleansing of “black” town of Tawergha
*Military assaults on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in 2012
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNThGzKkcLY
Regional Spillover
 Transit hub for terrorists: porous border and weak
governance
 Weapons proliferation from Libya
Tuareg rebellion IDPs
Secession and coup in Mali