Law No. (1) of 1996 on the work system of People’s Congresses and People’s Committees

Law No. (1) of 1425 AH

on the work system of People’s Congresses and People’s Committees

The General People’s Congress

In execution of the resolutions adopted by Basic People’s Congresses in their ordinary session of 1425 FBP and formulated by the General Forum of People’s Congresses, People’s Committees, trade unions, syndicates, and professional associations (General People’s Congress) in its ordinary session for the period of 18-24 Ramadan, corresponding to 7-13 February 1425 FBP;

And upon review of:

• The Declaration of the Establishment of the Authority of the People;
• The Great Green Charter of Human Rights of the Jamahiriya Era;
• Law No. (20) of 1991 AD on promoting freedom;
• Law No. (2) of 1423 FBP on the organization of People’s Congresses;
• Law No. (3) of 1423 FBP on the system of People’s Committees.

formulated the following law:

Part (1)

The Work System of People’s Congresses and Their Secretariats

Article (1)

The Basic People’s Congresses hold sole authority to issue laws and decrees regulating their affairs, to set economic plans and general budgets, to ratify international treaties and agreements and to determine the relationship between the Great Socialist Libyan Arab People’s Jamahiriya and other nations, as well as to set general policies in various fields and decide on matters of peace and war.

Article (2)

The Libyan Arab People is organised in Basic People’s Congresses to exercise its authority, and membership therein is for citizens who have completed eighteen years of age.

Non-Libyan Arabs may be members of the Basic People’s Congresses according to the conditions and stipulations determined by the general regulation of this law.

Article (3)

The establishment of localities and specification of their boundaries shall be issued in a decree by the Secretariat of the General People’s Congress, in coordination with the Secretariat of the General People’s Committee, and the jurisdiction of the Basic People’s Congress shall be determined by the administrative boundaries of the locality.

Article (4)

The laws and decrees issued by the Basic People’s Congresses shall only enter into force once they have been formulated and read out in the General People’s Congress and published in the Official Gazette, with the exception of those of a local character that do not contradict laws and decrees issued by Basic People’s Congresses or with the competencies legally granted to People’s Committees.

Article (5)

Each Basic People’s Congress shall select an Administrative Secretariat with the following competencies:

1. Administer and organise sessions of the Basic People’s Congress, draft its resolutions, and follow up on their execution.
2. Coordinate with the Secretariat of the Basic People’s Congress on organisational issues related to the Basic People’s Congress.
3. Hold face-to-face meetings with the People’s Committee of the locality.
4. Suspend the People’s Committee of the District or any of its members, in the event that they violate the legislation in force, and present the matter to the Basic People’s Congress to take the measures it deems fit.

Article (6)

a) The General People’s Congress is the forum of secretaries of the Basic People’s Congresses, People’s Committees, syndicates, trade unions, and professional associations.

b) The General People’s Congress is responsible for formulating and reading out the resolutions of the Basic People’s Congresses, and determining the sectors that are administered by Specialised General People’s Committees. In particular, it has the following competencies:

1. Select and hold accountable the secretary and members of the General People’s Congresses, accept their resignations, and remove them from their posts.
2. Select and hold accountable the secretary and members of the Secretariat of the General People’s Committee, accept their resignations, and remove them from their posts.
3. Select and hold accountable the secretary of the General People’s Committee for Popular Oversight and Follow-Up, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya and his deputy, accept their resignations, and remove them from their posts.
4. Select and hold accountable the President of the Supreme Court and his counsellors, the President of the People’s Court, the President of the People’s Prosecution Bureau, and the Prosecutor General, accept their resignations, and remove them from their posts.
5. The positions mentioned in Paragraph (1), (2), and (3) shall be selected from among selectees of the Basic People’s Congress, or from among others in cases determined by the General People’s Congress.

Article (7)

The Secretariat of the General People’s Congress is its instrument for following up on the execution of resolutions of the Basic People’s Congresses. Its competencies are as follows:

a) Call for meetings of the General People’s Congress in its various sessions, administer its sessions and determine meeting times of the Basic People’s Congresses in their ordinary, extraordinary, and emergency sessions.

b) Assemble proposals of the Basic People’s Congresses regarding the agenda, and present the same to the Basic People’s Congresses.

c) Hold meetings with the Secretariat of the General People’s Committee.

d) Monitor the activities of the General People’s Committee and its Secretariat, and the Specialised General People’s Committees.

e) Investigate selectees from the General People’s Congress, or grant permission to investigate them.

f) Oversee and monitor bodies subordinate to the General People’s Congress.

g) Investigate secretaries and members of Basic People’s Congresses. If necessary, it may suspend the Secretariat of the Basic People’s Congress or any of its members, in the event that they violate the laws and regulations in force, determine the replacement of the person suspended, and notify the competent Basic People’s Congress of the results of the investigation.

h) Competencies delegated thereto by the General People’s Congress.

Article (8)

The penalties that may be inflicted upon the selectees of the Basic People’s Congress are:

1. Notice
2. Warning
3. Reprimand
4. Deduction from salary
5. Suspension from the people’s work
6. Removal from the people’s work
7. Deprivation from selection for the people’s work

The General People’s Congress may inflict any of the penalties set forth in Items (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) of this article on selectees of the General People’s Congress. The penalty of removal from the people’s work shall be inflicted by a resolution by the General People’s Congress, while the penalty of deprivation from selection for the people’s work shall be by a ruling of the People’s Court.

Part (2)

The Work System of People’s Committees and Their Secretariats

Article (9)

People’s Committees are the instrument of the Basic People’s Congresses in the execution of their resolutions. They exercise their duties in accordance with the provisions of this law and other legislation in force that does not contradict the provisions thereof. They are deemed responsible before the competent People’s Congress for the execution of the competencies and powers granted to them by the law.

Article (10)

First: The People’s Committees shall administer localities and sectors determined in accordance with the provisions of Article (6) of this law.

Second: Public bodies, institutions, and companies shall be administered by People’s Committees.

Third: The Basic People’s Committee shall select a People’s Committee for the locality composed of a secretary and members of various People’s Committees for Sectors.

Fourth: Without prejudice to the provisions of Article (11), the People’s Committee for the locality shall exercise the competencies of the Basic People’s Committees and the Specialised General People’s Committees within the administrative boundaries and budgets adopted, wherever they are found in the legislation in force.

Fifth: The People’s Committee for the locality is responsible for maintaining security and order within its administrative jurisdiction by means of the members of local people’s security, volunteers, and those subject to national service who are assigned to local people’s security duties.

Sixth: The People’s Committee for the locality shall administer the facilities and projects within its jurisdiction. However, if such facilities or projects provide a public service for more than one locality, its management thereof shall be with the approval of the competent body.

Seventh: The Specialised General People’s Committee shall be formed of its secretary and the members of the People’s Committee for the sector in the localities. In accordance with the budget adopted, the Specialised Peoples Committee shall exercise all the competencies and powers granted the General People’s Committee, wherever they are found in the legislation in force, and that do not fall under the competencies of the General People’s Committee or the People’s Committees for localities under the provisions of this law. The Specialised General People’s Committee may form a secretariat composed of assistant secretaries selected from among its members or non-members. This secretariat shall exercise all the competencies and powers granted to it by the Specialised General People’s Committee. The Specialised General People’s Committee shall also be responsible for determining the competencies of the assistant secretary and his relationship with the members of the Specialised General People’s Committee to whom his competencies are connected. It shall also be responsible for executing all other competencies granted to the sector under the decision establishing it. It shall oversee the People’s Committee for the bodies, institutions, and companies that are subordinate to it, and it shall monitor their activities and prepare the necessary reports thereon.

Article (11)

The General People’s Committee shall be formed of its secretary and the secretaries of the Specialised General People’s Committees, and the secretaries of the People’s Committees for localities. It shall have the following competencies:

a) Establish executive programs for the resolutions of the Basic People’s Congresses formulated in the General People’s Congress.

b) Propose the draft budget and transformation plans.

c) Propose draft laws and other matters that it deems fit to refer to the Basic People’s Congresses in accordance with their resolutions.

d) Establish and organise institutions, bodies, departments, agencies, and public companies to exercise competencies of a strategic nature, and determine the objectives and competencies thereof.

e) Sign international agreements and take measures to ratify them in accordance with the law, in addition to adopting the meeting minutes of joint committees and following up on issues of international cooperation.

f) Prepare and issue executive regulation for laws, unless the laws stipulate that such regulation shall be issued by other bodies.

g) Decide on service projects of a special character that do not fall within the competence of the People’s Committee for the locality or the Specialised General People’s Committee specified in the law.

h) Examine matters that are shared among various sectors.

i) Set guidelines for delegation to work, study, or train abroad.

j) Monitor the activities of the Specialised General People’s Committees, People’s Committees for localities, and People’s Committees for bodies, institutions, public companies, and agencies that are subordinate thereto.

Article (12)

a) The General People’s Committee shall have a Secretariat constituted of the secretary of the General People’s Committee and the secretaries of the Specialised General People’s Committees.

b) The Secretariat of the General People’s Committee shall have the following competencies:

1. Prepare and call for meeting of the General People’s Committee, administer its sessions, and draft its minutes and resolutions.
2. Oversee, monitor, and administratively control all workers in the various sectors, and impose disciplinary penalties on them in accordance with the legislation in force.
3. Establish executive programs to provide the needs of People’s Committees for localities in terms of skills and administrative and technical expertise, according to the cadres and budgets adopted.
4. Competencies delegated thereto by the General People’s Committee.

Article (13)

The General People’s Committee and the other People’s Committees, if they learn that any of their members have violated laws or regulations, may suspend them from work and remove the causes of the violation, and they shall notify the competent Basic People’s Congress thereof in order to take the measures it deems fit. The General People’s Secretariat may suspend any People’s Committees for localities from work if it learns that the Committee has deviated from its mission or violated laws or regulations, and it shall remove the causes of the violation. It shall assign a replacement for the suspendee and notify the competent Basic People’s Congress.

Article (13) bis

Complaints against decisions to impose penalties on the selectees of the People’s Congresses and the General People’s Congress shall be brought before committees formed for this purpose, and the executive regulations and decrees for this law shall determine the manner of formation, competencies, and work procedures of such committees.

Article (14)

The People’s Committee for the locality shall have an independent budget whose resources shall consist of the proceeds of local fees collected in accordance with the legislation in force, its allocations in the general budget, and other resources determined by the General People’s Committee. The provisions of the Law of the Financial System of the State shall apply thereto, and it shall be considered an administrative unit for the purposes of executing the legislation in force.

Article (15)

Without the approval of the General People’s Committee, the People’s Committee for the locality may not conduct any affairs abroad, contract with foreign parties, or send delegations abroad for work, study, or other purposes.

Article (16)

The Secretary of the People’s Committee is competent to administer the meetings of the committee, execute its decisions, and sign contracts and the decisions that it takes, and represent it in its relations with outside parties and with the judiciary.

Article (17)

a) The general regulation for this law shall be issued by a decree by the General People’s Congress and it shall include in particular the following provisions.

1. Conditions for membership in the Secretariats of the Basic People’s Committees, the number of members in each secretariat, the dates and manner of selecting them, the duration of their work, the wording of the oath taken upon beginning work, the manner of swearing it, the mechanism for investigating them, holding them accountable, and disciplining them, a description of their duties, and the prohibitions on them.
2. Set forth the procedures for investigating selectees of the General People’s Congress and the manner of holding them accountable and inflicting penalties on them.
3. Conditions of membership in People’s Committees, the duration of their work, and the manner of selecting them.
4. Specify the body competent to issue the administrative and financial regulations of the Secretariat of the General People’s Congress and the Secretariats of the Basic People’s Congresses.
5. Other provisions detailed in the articles contained in Part (1) of this law.

Article (18)

The executive regulation for the provisions of Part (2) of this law shall be issued by a decree from the General People’s Committee, and it shall contain in particular the following:

1. Set forth the duties, prohibitions, and detailed competencies of the People’s Committees for localities, the Specialised General People’s Committees, and the Secretariat of the General People’s Committee.
2. Specify the principles and guidelines for selecting the People’s Committees in public bodies and institutions, the duration of their work, their competencies, the manner of forming and selecting public associations, People’s Committees for companies fully or partially owned by the state, in particular, the participation or producers and workers in the administration thereof and their public associations.
3. Other provisions detailed in Part (2) of this law.

Article (19)

Law No. (2) of 1423 FBP on People’s Committees and Law No. (3) of 1423 FBP on People’s Committees shall be repealed, as shall any provision contrary to the provisions of this law.

Article (20)

This law shall enter into force from its date of issuance and it shall be published in the Official Gazette and in various media.

General People’s Congress – Libya

Issued on 24 Ramadan 1405 FDP

Corresponding to 13 February 1425 FBP