Adrian Pelt

1892 - 1981

United Nations commissioner for Libya.

In November 1949 the United Nations General Assembly called for the creation by January 1952 of an independent Libyan state, which would include the three historic regions of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan. In December 1949 the General Assembly appointed Assistant Secretary-General Adrian Pelt UN commissioner for Libya, with a charter to assist the inhabitants of Libya in drawing up a constitution and establishing a state independent of British and French control. Pelt submitted a report to the General Assembly on 17 November 1950, calling for creation of a national assembly no later than 1 January 1951 and of a provisional government by 1 April 1951. Following the creation of the assembly and the proclamation of a Libyan constitution on 7 October 1951, the United Kingdom of Libya declared its independence on 24 December 1951. The most comprehensive and authoritative historical account of the independence of Libya under the auspices of the United Nations is found in Pelt's own book, Libyan Independence and the United Nations. Libya was the first African state to achieve independence from European rule and the first and only state created by the UN General Assembly.

Bibliography

Pelt, Adrian. Libyan Independence and the United Nations: A Case of Planned Decolonization. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970.

St John, Ronald Bruce. Libya and the United States: Two Centuries of Strife. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

— RONALD BRUCE ST JOHN