Note to Correspondents

Exhibition Showcasing United Nations Support for Libya’s Post-conflict

 

Transition Opens at New York Headquarters, 29 January

A multimedia exhibition focusing on United Nations support for Libya’s post-conflict transition opens in the main gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at the world body’s New York Headquarters on Tuesday, 29 January, at 6 p.m.

Photographs, videos and text panels document Libya’s early challenges and accomplishments as the nation strives to become a democracy in spite of the Qadhafi regime’s legacy of repression and in the wake of the fighting that led to its overthrow.

“Libya in Transition:  Helping to Build a New Democratic Libya” features the work of Iason Athanasiadis, a photographer for the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), and includes contributions from the United Nations Mine Action Service, courtesy of photographer Giovanni Diffidenti.

The excitement surrounding the landmark election of the General National Congress in July 2012 is depicted in photographs of a broad cross-section of Libyan society.  For most, it was the first time ever to participate in elections, while others had waited nearly a lifetime to vote again.

Produced by UNSMIL, a political mission based in the capital Tripoli, the exhibition also touches upon other challenges that the country is working to address, with support from the Mission, as it transitions from dictatorship to democracy.  They include improving security, promoting respect for human rights, establishing transitional justice, demining and increasing women’s participation in all facets of society.

Delivering remarks will be Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Tarek Mitri, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of UNSMIL, and Ibrahim Dabbashi, Deputy Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations.  Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, will make introductory remarks.

The opening is co-hosted by the Departments of Political Affairs and Public Information.  To view a selection of photographs from the exhibition, please visithttp://www.flickr.com/photos/92456475@N05/sets/72157632590219843/.

To find out more about the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, please visit http://unsmil.unmissions.org.

For more information about United Nations exhibitions, please contact Renata Morteo — tel.:  +1 212 963 5455 or e-mail:  morteo@un.org; Liza Wichmann — tel.:  +1 212 963 0089 or e-mail:  wichmann@un.org; or visit http://visit.un.org.

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For information media • not an official record