Judge Nawaf Salam
Prime Minister-Designate
Kraytem, Beirut
Lebanon
Dear Prime Minister-Designate Nawaf Salam,
On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I would like to extend our warmest congratulations on your recent designation as Prime Minister of Lebanon. We look forward to engaging with your government on critical human rights and governance issues, and we are hopeful that your tenure will mark a period of constructive dialogue and reform.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an impartial, nongovernmental human rights advocacy organization that monitors and reports on human rights issues in over 100 countries across the globe, including Lebanon.
We have followed your work at the International Court of Justice with great interest, including your powerful declaration last year setting out why Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians, and your 2019 call for the Chagossians to receive compensation for their forced displacement, positions we strongly support.
We are sure you are aware of the enormous challenges that lie ahead for Lebanon. The devastating consequence of hostilities with Israel exacerbated the pre-existing crises in the country, which have undermined the rights of people in Lebanon across the board. Political actors have undermined Lebanon’s judiciary and subjected it to continuous political interference in order to protect those credibly implicated in crimes and abuses, including state officials, from being held to account, including in the Beirut blast case and cases of financial crimes tied to Lebanon’s economic collapse. Lebanon’s public institutions have been hollowed out by decades of mismanagement and corruption, undermining peoples’ rights to education, health, social security, and electricity. The economy has been shattered by a financial and economic crisis that has impoverished most of the population and stripped them of their life savings. Lebanon’s prisons are also bursting at the seams, overcrowded at 300 percent capacity, with 70 percent of the prison population reportedly in pre-trial detention.
In your first speech as prime minister-designate, you stated that “it is now time to start a new phase [in Lebanon], rooted in justice, security, progress and opportunities so that Lebanon can be the country of free citizens, equal in their rights and obligations.” You stressed the urgency of reconstruction efforts for villages and buildings damaged across Lebanon, including southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, and Beirut, and the need to build “a new, modern and productive economy based on a capable and just State [with] a transparent and effective administration.” You particularly highlighted the need for a state that embodies “in all fields and aspects, without exception, the universal principles of human rights, as noted in Lebanon’s constitution” and emphasized the need for a truly independent judiciary. You promised to work to provide justice to the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and their families and to depositors who have lost their life savings during Lebanon’s economic collapse.
Echoing similar tones, newly designated President Joseph Aoun asserted in his speech before parliament that “a new phase in Lebanon has begun” and vowed to “protect the sanctity of individual and collective freedoms.” Aoun said there would be no interference with the work of the judiciary under his term, “no immunities given to criminals or corrupt individuals,” and promised to reform Lebanon’s prison system, strengthen Lebanon’s social security system, health infrastructure, and public education, and to respect media freedom and the right to freedom of expression “within [Lebanon’s] constitutional and legal frameworks.” Aoun also pledged to work with the new government to adopt a new law on judicial independence, to professionalize the work of Lebanon’s Public Prosecution Offices, and conduct judicial appointments based on standards of integrity and merit.
The sentiments you and President Aoun expressed raise hopes that Lebanon can break from the past and enter a new phase characterized by an accountable government that respects and fulfills human rights and upholds the rule of law. We believe that the incoming government should work to adopt a human rights-centered agenda that guarantees the rights of all people in Lebanon without distinction. We encourage you to make concrete commitments to deliver key advancements and reforms for people in Lebanon, including accountability for war crimes committed on Lebanese territory, the August 2020 Beirut blast, and the economic collapse; a truly independent judiciary; social and economic reforms seeking to establish accountable state-institutions; and protections that strengthen freedom of expression, women’s rights, and the rights of all persons, including prisoners and detainees.
Such a human rights agenda should prioritize the following key areas:
1. Reconstruction and Recovery
Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October 2023 killed more than 4,285 people, injured over 17,200, reduced dozens of border villages to rubble, and damaged more than 100,000 housing units in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, with economic losses reaching nearly $8.5 billion according to the World Bank. Dozens of healthcare facilities, hospitals, schools, and water facilities were damaged.Over 115,000 people remain displaced and unable to return to their homes, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA).
Lebanon’s incoming government should continue working with donors to provide support for reconstruction, conditioned on properly assessing and publishing the costs of the physical damage caused by the war, and regularly publishing information about funding allocations, expenditures, and outcomes. The Lebanese government should put in place necessary measures to prevent the mismanagement of donor funds and ensure that people impacted by the war are able to realize their rights to reparations, housing, education, and healthcare, among other rights. To ensure proper, effective, and long-lasting reconstruction efforts, Lebanon’s incoming government should ensure that any reconstruction efforts are transparent, accountable, and corruption-free.
2. Accountability for Unlawful Attacks and Apparent War Crimes
Human Rights Watch and other Lebanese and international rights groups have documented how unlawful Israeli attacks between October 2023 and November 2024 killed scores of people in Lebanon, but the Lebanese government has until now failed to take steps to secure justice of victims via international accountability mechanisms. In April 2024, Lebanon’s government issued a historic decision that called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to file a declaration with the registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC), under article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, which would provide the court with the jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute grave crimes committed on Lebanese territory since October 2023.
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs never followed through on the decision, which the government later rescinded. We call on the Lebanese government to reverse course by ratifying the Rome Statute and filing a declaration with the court to give it retroactive jurisdiction.
Human Rights Watch has documented a series of unlawful attacks and apparent war crimes by the Israeli military in Lebanon, including apparently deliberate attacks on journalists, peacekeepers, medics, and civilian objects, in addition to the unlawful use of booby trapped devicesand widespread use of white phosphorus, including unlawfully over populated residential areas.
We believe that there are important steps that the incoming government can take to investigate abuses and advance the possibility of accountability. Human Rights Watch has called on Lebanon and other United Nations member states to convene a special session at the UN Human Rights Council to establish an international investigation into all human rights violations committed by all parties involved in the conflict in Lebanon. Such an investigation could document ongoing crimes, collect evidence, and publicly report on their findings. We further call on your government to invite the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to undertake an investigative mission that documents and publicly reports on unlawful attacks, including war crimes committed between October 2023 and December 2024.
3. Independence of the Judiciary
For years, Lebanese and international rights groups have documented repeated political interference with the judiciary, in addition to flawed investigations of politically sensitive murders, and criticized the lack of an independent judiciary, which has allowed a culture of impunity to flourish. We believe that it is of utmost importance for the incoming government to work with parliament to enact a law on the independence of the judiciary that meets international standards, as a matter of urgency. Similarly, the government should work to reform the country’s codes of criminal and civil procedures to ensure that judicial investigations are not subject to political interference and obstruction. In March 2023, nine members of Lebanon’s parliament introduced two draft laws that would strengthen the independence of judicial investigations and prevent political interference by amending article 751 of Lebanon’s Code of Civil Procedure and article 52 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, both of which have been used to paralyze the investigation into the August 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion and other investigations into financial crimes and allegations of fraud.
A 2018 Draft Law on the Independence and Transparency of the Judiciary and a 2020 Draft Law on the Administrative Judiciary are currently under parliamentary committee review. Lebanese rights groups have criticized attempts by both the Administration and Justice Parliamentary Committee and the Minister of Justice to amend the bills in a manner that contravenes international standards.
The European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission) has adopted two separate opinions on both the Draft Law on Independence and Transparency of the Judiciary and the Draft Law on the Administrative Judiciary, providing the Lebanese government and parliament with recommendations intended to bring them in line with international standards. The Lebanese government should work with Parliament to ensure that the draft laws reflect the Venice Commission’s recommendations and other international standards on judicial independence, such as the 1985 UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, and the Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 32 on article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In this regard, Lebanon’s government may also seek technical assistance from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on issues related to the draft laws related the independence of the judiciary.
The government should also work with parliament to remove civilians from the jurisdiction of Lebanon’s military courts.
In recent years, Lebanese authorities have used the military court’s legal jurisdiction over civilians as a means to intimidate or punish them for political activism or to stamp out dissent. A 2017 Human Rights Watch investigation revealed many due process and international law violations inherent in trying civilians before military courts in Lebanon. Many of the judges are military officers appointed by and subordinate to the defense minister, undermining the independence of the court. Those who have stood trial at military courts describe incommunicado detention, interrogations without a lawyer, ill-treatment and torture, the use of confessions extracted under torture, decisions issued without an explanation, seemingly arbitrary sentences, and a limited ability to appeal. Military courts have no business trying civilians. The military court should only have jurisdiction over purely military matters, but never when a civilian is the alleged victim or defendant. Lebanon’s incoming government should work with parliament to end this troubling practice and enact a law to remove civilians from the military court’s jurisdiction entirely.
4. Accountability for the 2020 Beirut Blast
Lebanese authorities have repeatedly obstructed the domestic investigation into the August 2020 Beirut port explosion by shielding politicians and officials implicated in the explosion from questioning, prosecution, and arrest. Lebanese authorities have also failed to take any significant steps to enable the domestic investigation to resume without undue interference and to uphold the rights of victims to an effective remedy, truth, and justice.
Nearly four and a half years after the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port, no one has been held to account and repeated political interference with the investigation has effectively it since December 2021 because of a series of legal challenges filed against Judge Tarek Bitar by politicians charged with crimes related to the blast. In January 2023, Judge Bitar took steps to overcome legal barriers preventing him from resuming his work, ordered the release of five suspects, and charged and summoned others for interrogation, including the former top public prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat. In response, Oueidat ordered law enforcement agencies not to execute Bitar’s “null” orders, charged Bitar with several crimes, including “usurping power,” and ordered the release of all the detainees in the case. The investigation into the explosion remains subject to interference and continues to be hampered by systemic obstruction, intimidation, and a political impasse. Last week, Judge Tarek Bitar reportedly resumed his work on the investigation and summoned 10 additional people, including port employees and security officials, with investigation sessions scheduled for March and April, according to media reports.
In addition to working with parliament to adopt the necessary laws on the independence of the judiciary, the government should work to remove the legal and political barriers that have prevented the investigative judge in this case from resuming his work, including by making the necessary judicial appointments, in line with international standards on the independence of the judiciary, removing immunities protecting state officials from being held to account, and ensuring that security forces can execute investigation and arrest requests issued by Judge Bitar.
5. Rights-respecting Social and Economic Reforms
As noted in your speech at the presidential palace in Baabda, decades of mismanagement and corruption have hollowed out Lebanon’s institutions, depriving people in Lebanon of their rights. This includes, but is not limited to, the rights to education, health, social security, electricity, and an adequate standard of living. According to the World Bank, Lebanon’s economic crisis ranked among the “most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century,” and is the product of three decades of deliberate, reckless fiscal and monetary policy. New World Bank data in Lebanon reveal alarming figures of nearly 80 percent of the population experiencing multidimensional poverty.
Lebanon’s incoming government should urgently work with parliament to adopt some of the laws that Lebanon previously agreed to as part of the 2022 Staff Level Agreement with the International Monetary Fund, specifically the capital control law and the banking secrecy law, which would unlock billions of dollars in financial resources available to Lebanon and help set it on the path towards a sustainable recovery. The government should also implement the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020-2025 and ensure that the Ministerial Anti-Corruption Committee and its supporting Technical Committee are sufficiently empowered and have the resources and technical expertise necessary to implement and monitor the strategy.
The severity of the economic crisis underlines the urgent need for a universal, rights-aligned social security system in Lebanon that leaves no one behind, fulfilling everyone’s rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living. Lebanon’s incoming government should recognize the widespread impact of the economic crisis and devise a social security system to provide a set of entitlements in line with article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 202), such as child, maternity, disability, and unemployment benefits as well as old-age pensions, where the state has the responsibility to ensure that everyone has access to food and income security.
Since 2023, the government has taken some steps towards establishing a more rights-aligned social security system. This was particularly critical to accompany a phase out of subsidies for food products, fuel, and medicines. In April 2023, Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs, with technical and financial support of UNICEF and the International Labour Organization (ILO), launched the National Disability Allowance (NDA) program, providing a monthly benefit of US$40 to individuals with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 28. In December of the same year, Parliament adopted Law 319, introducing a new contributory pension scheme within the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). In February 2024, the caretaker government released its first National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS), committing to an ambitious vision to transform the existing failing social security system into a more universal one. Despite these, Lebanese authorities are woefully behind on protecting and fulfilling the economic, social, and cultural rights of people in Lebanon with just 20 percent of the population covered by any form of social security, in part due to their failure to harness multiple options available to it to raise funds, including tackling tax evasion and addressing tax avoidance and adopting progressive tax reforms.
The incoming government should build on the existing progress towards universality and translate commitments into action by increasing investments in universal social security through progressive domestic revenue generation. The government could mobilize domestic resources to extend coverage and progressively reach universal social security. One key step would be to establish a unified, national body for the implementation of social protection policies that includes concerned ministries, public administrations, and civil society actors. Without these reforms, Lebanon’s poverty and human rights crisis will only worsen.
Lebanon’s electricity crisis has also exacerbated inequality in the country, severely limiting people’s ability to realize other economic, social, and cultural rights, and pushing them further into poverty. Lebanon’s incoming government should urgently implement Law 462/2002, which organizes the electricity sector, establishes the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), unbundles electricity activities, and pass any implementation decrees necessary to fulfill the law. The incoming government should urgently pass a decree appointing the members of the ERA in a transparent and merit-based selection process and ensure that the ERA can carry out its work in an independent and autonomous way. The government should also work to ensure that all residents have a continuous, affordable, and clean supply of electricity, which it should recognize as a human right, with a focus on increasing generation capacity from hydropower, wind, and solar.
Lastly, the government should ensure that all public institutions – including those related to education, social security, public health, electricity and the environment – are governed by policies that strengthen their proper functioning, transparency, and accountability.
6. Freedom of Expression
In recent years, Lebanon’s criminal defamation laws have been selectively used against journalists, activists, and other citizens who have written about corruption by public officials, reported misconduct by security agencies, criticized the current political and economic situation, or exposed abuse against vulnerable populations. Over the past few years, the country has witnessed an alarming increase in infringements on peaceful speech and expression. Powerful political and religious national figures have instrumentalized the country’s criminal defamation and insult laws to silence nonviolent criticism, especially against those leveling accusations of misconduct or corruption.
The Lebanese penal code criminalizes defamation against public officials and authorizes imprisonment for up to one year in such cases. It also authorizes imprisonment for up to two years for insulting the president, flag, or national emblem. The military code of justice prohibits insulting the flag or army, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison. Other laws outlaw speech deemed insulting to religion or speech that incites sectarianism. Cases investigated by Human Rights Watch show that the laws have been used to silence speech that is not only legitimate, but necessary for the functioning of a vibrant society governed by the rule of law.
We urge you to publicly speak out against the use of criminal defamation provisions as a matter of principle, and to work with parliament to repeal the criminal defamation provisions of the penal code and to ensure that such provisions are eliminated from the proposed draft Media Law, which should also be in line with international standards on freedom of expression, as outlined by the Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 34 on article 19 of the ICCPR.
We urge you to safeguard the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, privacy, equality, and nondiscrimination of everyone in Lebanon, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
7. Women’s Rights
In Lebanon, various religion-based personal status laws are discriminatory against women and allow religious courts to control matters related to marriage, divorce, and child custody. Lebanon’s nationality law bars Lebanese women from passing citizenship to their children and foreign spouses. Under all personal status laws, a woman can be found legally recalcitrant (disobedient) if she leaves the marital home and refuses to cohabit with her husband without a reason that the religious courts consider legitimate, even in situations of abuse. A woman found to be legally recalcitrant is not entitled to spousal maintenance (financial support) from her husband.
Lebanon’s new government should work with parliament to reform Lebanon’s discriminatory laws in a manner that ensures equal treatment between all men and women in all matters, including, but not limited to, nationality, marriage, divorce, the treatment of children after divorce and freedom of movement.
Lebanon’s government should also work with parliament to adopt legislation that would increase protections for women facing abuse. As documented by Lebanese and international rights groups, women’s access to justice for sexual and gender-based violence is often impeded by the Lebanese criminal justice system. This includes a lack of effective gender-sensitive investigations, the lack of competence by people carrying them out, and inadequate resources, in addition to discriminatory policies, practices, and gender stereotypes by judicial officials. The new government should call on parliament to reform the country’s 2020 “Law to Criminalize Sexual Harassment and [for] Rehabilitation of Its Victims” so that it is in line with international standards.
8. Prison Reforms
Lebanon’s prisons are bursting at the seams, with overcrowding levels in prison reportedly reaching 300 percent of total capacity. According to official figures cited by Lebanese media, nearly 70 percent of individuals in Lebanon’s prisons are in pre-trial detention without a criminal conviction. Access to food in prisons has also dangerously deteriorated since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019. According to Amnesty International, the number of deaths in Lebanese detention facilities nearly doubled in 2022 compared with 2018, before the economic crisis began. Despite millions of dollars allocated to improve prisons conditions in Lebanon, the treatment of prisoners and their detention conditions remain deplorable. Lebanon’s new government should take urgent steps to relieve prison overcrowding, including by considering alternatives to detention for pretrial detainees, and provide prisoners with adequate and reliable access to food and medical care.
Lebanon’s new government should also work with donor governments to improve detention conditions in a transparent, and effective manner, including by regularly publishing information about funding allocations, expenditures, and outcomes.
9. Refugee Rights
Lebanon continues to host the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, including an estimated 1.5 million refugees who fled human rights violations in Syria and the civil war that began there in 2011. The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024 is likely to lead to the return of many Syrians. We call on you and relevant Lebanese authorities to maintain protection for Syrian nationals until people can make a voluntary, dignified, and informed decision to return. There should be no forced returns to Syria and the army and other intelligent agencies should end all practices of arrest, detention, and expulsion of Syrian refugees, that are administered solely on the basis of their lack of residency documents, lack of legal status, or attempts to leave Lebanon.
According to the UN, there are nearly 520,000 Palestinian refugees, including over 31,000 from Syria, living in Lebanon, where they continued to face restrictions, including on their right to work and own property. Nearly 80 percent of the Palestinian refugee population is living below the national poverty line, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), with high poverty rates being attributed to “decades of structural discrimination related to employment opportunities and denial of the right to own property in Lebanon.” Lebanon’s incoming government should consider addressing discriminatory legal and administrative laws and regulations that have prohibited Palestinians from working in certain professions.
10. Migrant Rights
The legal status of the estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, including workers from Ethiopia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, is regulated by the restrictive and abusive regime of laws, regulations, and customary practices known as the kafala (sponsorship) system. This system traps tens of thousands of migrant domestic workers in highly abusive conditions amounting, at worst, to modern slavery.
Article 7 of the Labor Law specifically excludes migrant domestic workers, denying them protections that other workers are entitled to, including a minimum wage, limits on working hours, a weekly rest day, overtime pay, and freedom of association.
Workers cannot leave or change jobs without their employers’ consent. Those who leave their employers without permission risk losing their legal residency and face detention and deportation. The high degree of control over workers’ lives under the kafala system has led to cases of human trafficking, forced labour, exploitation, and more.
After the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, many migrant workers were reportedly abandoned by their employers and denied access to shelters across the country. Recruitment agencies have also been accused of subjecting workers to abuse, labor violations, and human trafficking.
The government should urgently take steps to abolish the kafala system and to protect migrant domestic workers under the Labor Law.
Human Rights Watch stands ready to work with the Lebanese government towards the strengthening of human rights, accountability, and the rule of law in Lebanon.
We would greatly welcome the opportunity to discuss these recommendations with you in person. If there is a convenient time to meet, please have your staff contact my colleague Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon Researcher at Human Rights Watch, via phone on *************** or *************** , or via email at *************** . Thank you in advance for considering our request.
Once again, congratulations on your new role. We look forward to future dialogue and cooperation in addressing these important human rights issues.
Sincerely,
Lama Fakih
Director, Middle East and North Africa
Director, Beirut Office
Human Rights Watch
