قانون رقم (11) لسنة 1971 في شأن الدفاع المدني

Law No. (11) of 1971

on Civil Defence

In the name of the people

The Revolutionary Command Council :

Upon review of:

• The Constitutional Declaration issued on 2 Shawwal 1389 AH, corresponding to 11 December 1969 AD;
• Law No. (62) of 1970 on the local government system;
• The Revolutionary Command Council Law issued on 8 Dhu al-Qaada 1389 AH, corresponding to 16 January 1970 AD, forming the National Civil Defence Council and determining its functions;
• The Revolutionary Command Council Law issued on 11 Dhu al-Qaada 1389 AH, corresponding to 19 January 1970 AD, organising security services in the Ministry of Interior and Local Government;
• And based on the proposal of the Minister of Interior and Local Government and the approval of the Cabinet.

issued the following law:

Article (1)

Civil defence shall refer to protecting civilians; ensuring the safety of transportation and various means of communication; ensuring regular and progressive workflow in public facilities; maintaining national works of art and antiquities; protecting public and private buildings, facilities, institutions, and projects from the dangers of air strikes and other military operations in wartime; and facing situations considered by the Supreme Council of Civil Defence to be public and natural disasters in peacetime.

Article (2)

Civil defence measures include the following, in particular:

1. Regulate methods warning of air strikes.
2. Regulate firefighting methods.
3. Prepare rescue teams onshore and offshore and debris-removal teams, along with their equipment and tools.
4. Prepare different hospitals and other facilities that are suitable to receive people wounded by air strikes; establish rescue and decontamination centres; prepare ambulances and decontamination vehicles to transport the injured to these centres and hospitals.
5. Regulate operations to detect unexploded ordnances and remove them.
6. Set up public bunkers; dig trenches; and set up bunkers for buildings and facilities.
7. Set up and prepare civil defence operation rooms.
8. Regulate the exchange of assistance between cities and districts in the works of civil defence teams and set up quick-acting civil formations to rescue stricken areas.
9. Regulate restrictions on turning lights on and the commitment to turning them off during air strikes.

10. Regulate traffic during airstrikes.

11. Form teams to monitor airstrikes.

12. Form teams to monitor fires.

13. Store equipment, tools, medical supplies, and necessary supplies for civil defence work.

14. Develop and implement plans to evacuate the population of some areas and rescue the afflicted persons.

15. Develop prevention methods for facilities, institutions, projects, and public facilities.

16. Develop prevention methods against the dangers of nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare.

17. Develop and regulate support services from popular organizations to make use thereof in civil defence work.

18. Spread and raise awareness of civil defence methods among citizens and train them on such methods by various means. The Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue a decree to determining the cities and bodies to which all or part of the measures set forth in the foregoing shall apply.

Article (3)

The Civil Defence and Fire Department in the Ministry of Interior and Local Government shall be responsible for the following:

First: Develop civil defence plans and projects; monitor their implementation in times of war and peace; prepare statistics pertaining thereto; train various individuals and teams on civil defence work; spread and raise awareness of civil defence among citizens; and provide an emergency stock of civil defence equipment and tools and keep it valid for immediate use.

Second: Handle public and natural disasters. For this purpose, the Department shall make use of civil defence teams and directly request any ministry, facility, department, body, or entity whatsoever to provide the aid it considers necessary to face disasters, whether such aid is individual efforts, tasks, or tools.

Third: Provide technical advice to secure and protect facilities and means of transport and communication.

Fourth: Assume technical supervision of the branches of the Department in security directorates.

This Department shall have the right to directly contact ministries, bodies, public and private institutions, and other entities to coordinate their cooperation regarding the implementation of the requirements of civil defence work and follow-up on the relevant procedures.

The Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue the decree regulating work in this department and the security director in the governorate shall be the Comptroller General of Civil Defence and he shall carry out his duties under the supervision of the Governor.

Article (4)

A Supreme Council of Civil Defence shall be formed by virtue of a decree by the Revolutionary Command Council and shall be headed by the Minister of Interior and Local Government. It shall be responsible for the following:

1. Develop the general civil defence policy and approve the plans and projects submitted thereto.
2. Determine the functions and responsibilities of the ministries, bodies, and entities that implement civil defence plans.
3. Discuss the civil defence in wartime action plan proposed to it by the Minister of Interior and Local Government and issue the resolutions and directives required by the case to achieve cooperation between different bodies and coordinate between efforts.

The decisions of the Council and its directives shall be binding for ministries and other concerned bodies in the State.

Article (5)

A civil defence committee shall be formed in every district by virtue of a decree by the Minister of Interior and Local Government and shall be headed by the governor. The committee shall be responsible for studying the means to implement the civil defence plan. Its decisions shall be reported to the Civil Defence and Fire Department for approval. The committee may decide to summon experts and other individuals whose assistance it deems necessary, but they shall not have a counting vote in the decisions it issues.

The committee shall convene at the request of its chairman and its sessions shall be valid if they are attended by half the number of members at least. Decisions of the committee shall be taken by the absolute majority of the members present during the vote. In the event of a tie, the side with which the chairman voted shall prevail.

Article (6)

The State shall bear the expenses of the necessary measures for civil defence work, taking into account the provisions of Articles (7) and (10).

Article (7)

The Governorate Council shall allocate each year the necessary funds to implement the civil defence plan in its jurisdiction.

Article (8)

The Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue a decree regarding the measures required for civil defence in the jurisdiction of provincial councils. He shall also issue a decree regarding the measures to be taken by the owners of facilities, educational institutions, public shops, nightclubs, commercial and industrial shops, and residential real estate and other properties that need special oversight given their nature, importance, or utilization.

Article (9)

With the assistance of executive bodies in the district, the governor shall be responsible for the implementation of civil defence measures determined by virtue of a decree by the Minister of Interior and Local Government, within the designated time period and in the order designated therefor in accordance with the decree referred to in the previous article.

Article (10)

Owners of properties referred to in Article (8) shall, at their expense and within the time limits set therefor, implement the work imposed on these properties by virtue of a decree by the Minister of Interior and Local Government, provided such costs do not exceed five percent of the total value of the property.

Article (11)

In the event the work or property owner does not implement the works required of him, the Department may carry them out at his expense.

Article (12)

Individuals who acquire building permits shall carry out civil defence work and prepare special locations that can serve as public bunkers when needed. The State shall bear the expenses of the preparation of these bunkers and compensate the property owner for the loss of value it may be sustain because of them.

Owners of buildings referred to in the preceding paragraph and their occupants shall vacate the locations prepared to be public bunkers as soon as the competent authority alerts them to do so.

Article (13)

The Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue a decree on the requirements and specifications for the establishment of bunkers and other civil defence works set forth in the preceding article.

The decree that shall be issued by the authorities in charge of organisation works shall include these requirements and specifications for properties determined by the Minister of Interior and Local Government.

Article (14)

For civil defence purposes, the Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue decrees to seize properties (whether they are built or not), hospitals, rescue and supply centres, movables, and materials needed to prepare bunkers and shelter immigrants and refugees.

The owner shall be compensated for the takeover of the property and the loss of value. The owner shall also be compensated for the movables seized.

Article (15)

The Minister of Interior and Local Government shall form groups of volunteers to participate in civil defence work and handle public and natural disasters. The conditions for volunteers to carry out their work and training shall be regulated by virtue of a decree by the Minister of Interior and Local Government.

Article (16)

The Minister of Interior and Local Government shall decide at any time to conduct trials and tests on civil defence work by effective means of his own.

Whoever refrains from implementing measures pertaining to the trials or tests referred to, or objects to their implementation, shall be imprisoned for no less than two months and/or receive a fine of no less than 50 Libyan pounds and no more than 150 pounds.

In the event he refrains from or objects to the implementation again -- within six months from the date of the final judgment -- the penalty shall be doubled.

Article (17)

In the event of a decision to declare a state of emergency, disaster, mobilization, or war, the Minister of Interior and Local Government may dispose of the civil defence appropriations, whether they were allocated in the ministry or the governorates' budgets.

He may entrust ministries and other competent authorities to purchase machinery, vehicles, equipment, medicines, medical supplies, etc., and identify the parties to which such things may be delivered, without being restricted to financial regulations set forth in laws and regulations, so as to benefit from them and store them valid so as to be usable when needed, under its responsibility and the control and supervision of the Ministry of Interior and Local Government.

Article (18)

In the event of a decision to declare a state of emergency, disaster, mobilization, or war, the Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue decrees to implement the civil defence plan.

Article (19)

In the event of a decision to declare a state of emergency, disaster, mobilization, or war, public employees, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, workers in facilities or installations of public utility, workers in the food industry or trade, and transport workers may not abandon their work locations without a written permission from the governor concerned. The Minister of Interior and Local Government, with the approval of the Supreme Council of Civil Defence, may add to the categories mentioned other categories whose works are necessary for stable livelihood.

Article (20)

No device, sign, or signal intended for use for civil defence purposes may be removed or rendered unfit for the objective for which it was designed. The offender shall assume the expenses to restore the object's initial state.

Article (21)

In military areas and regions managed by the Ministry of Defence, the Minister of Defence shall assume the functions of the Minister of Interior and Local Government stipulated in this law.

Article (22)

The relationship between civil defence authorities and the Armed Forces shall be coordinated by virtue of a Cabinet decree that shall include the following:

a.) The duty of the Armed Forces with regards to civil defence in ordinary circumstances.

b.) The manner by which the Armed Forces shall provide assistance to civil defence authorities in cases of extreme necessity and urgent exceptional cases, identifying the tasks entrusted to the Armed Forces.

Article (23)

Any violation of the provisions of this law or the laws issued in implementation thereof, except as provided for in Article (16), shall be punished by imprisonment for no less than six months and/or a fine of no less than one hundred pounds and no more than two hundred and fifty pounds, without prejudice to any severer penalty stipulated in the Penal Code or any other law.

Article (24)

Employees selected by the Minister of Interior and Local Government shall act as judicial officers in the implementation of the provisions of this law and its implementing decrees. They shall have access at any time to the location where measures stipulated in the law are being implemented in order to check the implementation of those provisions and establish any violation thereof.

Article (25)

Compensation referred to in Articles (12) and (14) of this law shall be assessed by a commission, which shall be formed and its procedures determined by virtue of a decree by the Minister of Interior and Local Government.

Article (26)

The Ministers of Interior and Local Government and Civil Defence shall implement this law within the competence of each, and the Minister of Interior and Local Government shall issue the decrees necessary for implementation thereof.

This Law shall enter into force from its date of issuance and shall be published in the Official Gazette.

Revolutionary Command Council

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi

Prime Minister

Minister of Defence

Major Al-Khuwaildi Al-Humaidi

Minister of Interior and Local Government

Issued on 3 Muharram 1391 AH

Corresponding to 28 February 1971 AD