Flag of Libya
Libya’s flag has three horizontal stripes, red, black and green, the black as deep as the other two together, with a white crescent and a white five-pointed star in the centre. It was Libya’s national flag from 1951 to 1969 and was taken up again in 2011; Libya’s Constitutional Declaration gives its colours no meaning.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Article 3 of Libya’s Constitutional Declaration of 2011 sets the flag: its length twice its width, three parallel stripes with red at the top, black in the centre and green at the bottom, and the black stripe equal in size to the other two, bearing a white crescent with a five-pointed white star between its tips. The United Nations raised the flag at its duty stations in October 2011, after the General Assembly recognised the National Transitional Council as Libya’s representative in September and Libya’s Permanent Mission notified the UN of the Council’s decision, by a declaration of 3 August 2011, to change the country’s name to “Libya” and to change its national flag. The UN noted that the design had been Libya’s national flag from 1951 to 1969.
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What the colours are said to mean
The Constitutional Declaration describes the flag and gives no meanings. The Brooklyn Museum’s guide to African flags, shown at the Portland Art Museum, reads the red as the blood shed in Libya’s struggle for freedom, the white crescent and star on the black as hope during the dark days of oppression, and the green as wealth and prosperity.
Libya’s flag and the pan-African flag
The pan-African flag uses the same three colours, red, black and green, a scheme the Brooklyn Museum dates to Marcus Garvey in 1920. On Libya’s flag the black stripe is twice as deep as each of the others and carries the white crescent and star.
Read next
- Next in African flagsFlag of MoroccoMorocco’s flag is red with a green five-pointed star in the centre, drawn as an open outline in one continuous line. Moroccan law calls it simply a green five-pointed star; the dahir of 1915 that first put it on the flag called it the seal of Solomon (al-khatam al-Sulaymani). The law gives the colours no meaning.
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of AzerbaijanAzerbaijan’s flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width, blue, red and green from the top, with a white crescent and a white eight-pointed star in the middle of the red. The President’s office gives the meanings: blue for the Turkic origin of the Azerbaijani people, red for the wish to build a modern society and develop democracy, and green for belonging to Islamic civilisation.
More african flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves, lines, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- Constitutional Declaration of Libya, 2011, Constitutional Declaration of Libya of 2011, Article 3 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article (3)
- United Nations in Vienna raises the new flag of Libya, UN Information Service Vienna, press release UNIS/INF/2011 (5 October 2011), United Nations Information Service Vienna, Main text
- Africa Fashion: flags of Africa (exhibition infographic), Portland Art Museum, Africa Fashion exhibition flag infographic; design and narrative courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Portland Art Museum, Introduction; Libya
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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