The Situation of Human Rights in Lebanon In 2018, the Lebanese government took some positive steps towards promoting human rights and showed willingness to comply with certain human rights matters. However, it clearly lacked the capacity and political will to further improve legislation, enforce laws, uphold the country’s international obligations, and create meaningful change. This [...]
The current system of recruiting and employing migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon generates abuse, inefficiency, and injustices. ALEF – Act for Human Rights has therefore produced this Protection Framework to analyze the problems and propose solutions to the MDW employment system. This Protection Framework was developed through desk research and consultative meetings with stakeholders. [...]
Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon face widespread human rights violations and poor protection caused by the sponsorship system, among other violations, that transforms the status of migrant workers to victims of trafficking as well as by the weak Lebanese protection framework which renders migrant workers constantly at risk of abuse. As the violations to their [...]
Lebanon is a destination country for internationally trafficked persons, primarily women. Women from different countries of origin travel to Lebanon, in the belief that they will work as domestic workers and have reportedly been forced into domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. This paper presents the results of a monitoring report that rates key duty bearers [...]
Although Lebanon has supported, and hence committed to several UPR recommendations to improve the situation of MDWs, their situation remains unchanged. In response to these shortcomings, this paper presents the first results of a Monitoring Report that rates key duty bearers on their progress between 2015 and 2018 in achieving recommendations from Lebanon’s 2015 UPR [...]
In 2015, Lebanon expressed its support to several Universal Periodic Review recommendations to improve the situation of migrant domestic workers, combat trafficking, and support its victims. Although this means that the State commits to undertaking these recommendations, it is difficult to monitor whether real change has been made on these issues, especially due to the [...]
Annex 4 Advocacy Campaigns
August 17, 2018 To: His Excellency Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Mr. David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Re: Call for action to condemn the Lebanese authorities’ pervasive summons of peaceful activists infringing their right to [...]
Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region Days of Dialogue, April 24, 2018 Session I: Protecting Syrians across the region Written Statement: Protection Challenges in Lebanon[1] In Lebanon, the conditions of refugees remain fragile, and refugees are still facing growing protection risks. Since the last conference, last year, several policies adopted by the [...]
In 2017, Lebanese Parliament amended and passed several laws that improve human rights in Lebanon and reaffirm the realization of several efforts by Lebanese civil society in areas concerning elections, transparency, women’s rights, and torture prevention. Recent legislative reforms include changing the electoral law and the prohibition of marital rape, as well as the criminalization [...]
