Workshop syllabus

Since the fall of Muammar Gadhafi’s regime in 2011, Libya has experienced continued political instability and multiple armed conflicts. Since 2014, rival authorities exist in the West and East of the country and, despite the creation of a Government of National Unity in 2021, to date Libya remains deeply divided. Meanwhile, State actors and non-State armed groups continue to commit serious human rights violations in a widespread manner, with total impunity. The inability of the Libyan justice system to ensure accountability has led the UN Human Rights Council to establish in June 2020 an Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya (Libya FFM), tasked with investigating human rights violations and war crimes.

The aim of the workshop is to discuss with students the role of the Libya FFM in the fight against impunity in Libya. The first part of the workshop will offer an historical and political introduction to the situation in Libya, as well as an overview of the UN practice of establishing international fact-finding mechanisms and the work of the Libya FFM.

In the second part of the workshop, students will engage in a real-case example of factfinding. Based on the Libya FFM’s first report, they will be asked to identify human rights issues that require further investigation, elaborate a plan for conducting fact-finding and addressing practical challenges, and formulate recommendations to the international community for pursuing accountability.

Instructor's bio profile

Vito Todeschini is a Legal Adviser at the Middle East and North Africa Programme of the International Commission of Jurists, where he focuses on Libya and Palestine/Israel. His expertise includes international humanitarian law, human rights law and the law on the use of force. Vito received a PhD from Aarhus University (Denmark), a Law Degree from the University of Ferrara, and an E.MA in Human Rights and Democratization from the Global Campus of Human Rights (Venice). Before joining the ICJ, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Trento, a Visiting Researcher at the Swedish Defence University (Stockholm), and a Visiting Fellow at the Amsterdam Centre for International Law.