Leiden-Benghazi Research Project on Real Property Issues in Libya
Dr Suliman Ibrahim of the Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI) will conduct research on problems concerning real property in Libya. The project is commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This research project is conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Society Studies of the University of Benghazi and will run for eighteen months. The problems are mainly caused by radical redistribution policies Gaddafi's regime introduced in the 1970s. The research focuses on efforts to address these injustices during the last years of the regime, and particularly after the February 2011 revolution.
The political background of the research is a deeply divided country, in which many local disputes contribute to the constitution of a time bomb that is difficult to defuse. Mid December, and after more than a year long national dialogue sponsored by the UN, the world witnessed the signing of a Libyan Political Agreement that has established a government of national accord (GNA). Wisely, the GNA has announced that its three priorities are: security, economy and national reconciliation; still, the efforts to deal with these important issues cannot sufficiently succeed unless tens of thousands of conflicts on houses and land are addressed. Therefore, Dr Ibrahim and VVI director Jan Michiel Otto have chosen this theme. Earlier, they carried out research projects on ‘Access to Justice and Institutional Development’ (2013) and ‘Assessing Legislation for Libya’s Reconstruction’( 2014-2015) from Leiden and Benghazi.