Articles for Lebanon

Lebanon submitted its initial report, overdue since 2001, to the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT), a body of 10 independent experts, on 9 March 2016.

On 2 November 2015, the United Nations Member States reviewed the human rights situation in Lebanon in the context of the country’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – an interactive discussion between the State under review and other UN Member States which takes place every four years.

On 4 April 2016, 21-year-old Syrian baker Malaz Asaad will have the next hearing of his trial. He is facing terrorism charges, which are based on confessions he made under torture while detained in the Rihanyie military barracks in 2014. In view of these facts, on 25 February 2016, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (SRT), Juan E.

On 18 May 2015, 25-year-old Syrian citizen Yarub Al Faraj was arrested by members of the Military Intelligence at a military checkpoint in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and taken to the Ablah Military Barrack, where he was tortured and forced to confess to accusations of terrorism, which were later used as the basis for his conviction by the Military Court in December 2015.

One year after the adoption by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of an Opinion recognising the arbitrary character of the detention of 72 persons arrested following the 2007 Nahr Al Bared crisis and calling for their immediate release, the majority of them remain detained.

On 6 November 2015, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) adopted a draft report containing the recommendations made by United Nations Member States to Lebanon during the State's review, which took place on 2 November 2015.

On 9 October 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on the case of Layal al-Kayaje, detained since her summon for investigation by the Lebanese Military Intelligence in Saida, on 21 September 2015, shortly after she denounced having been tortured and raped by military officers during her detention in 2013.

The signatory organizations call upon the Lebanese judiciary to act on the case of Layal al-Kayaje, a veterinary clinic employee from Saida, who was summoned for investigation on September 21, 2015 by Lebanese army intelligence in Saida, Lebanon, following her statements on alleged torture and rape during detention.

On 14 September 2015, Alkarama and the Lebanese organisation March sent a communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (SR FPAA), Maina Kiai, regarding the case of Lebanese writer, director and social activist, Lucien Bourjeily, injured by security forces durin

On 23 March 2015 Alkarama will submitt its report on Lebanon's human rights record to the Human Rights Council (HRC) in view of Lebanon's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on 3 November 2015. Alkarama raised key issues such as the widespread use of torture, the recourse to arbitrary detention as well as violations of fair trial rights.