Human rights group warns torture widespread in Lebanon

By Olivia Alabaster

BEIRUT: The human rights organization Alef – Act for Human Rights released Wednesday their alternative report into Lebanon’s progress with regard to international conventions against torture, as the country has not issued a single report since signing the convention in 2000.

While Lebanon signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture over 10 years ago, the government has not yet issued a report into its progress in carrying out the recommended measures. States that have ratified the convention are expected to issue reports every couple of years, and Lebanon was given a November 2011 deadline by which to do so.

Civil society organizations are invited to issue shadow reports into the issues, alongside the government, to offer an alternative view the U.N. Committee on Torture and, as such, Alef has now sent its report to the committee.

One of the conditions of the UNCAT was the need for each state to create a National Prevention Mechanism to monitor and prevent torture, according to George Ghali, project assistant on the torture prevention program at Alef, who helped author the NGO’s alternative report. However, an NPM has not yet been formed in Lebanon, Ghali said.

Alef has been monitoring torture in Lebanon over the last five years.

“Torture is widespread,” according to the report, with over 700 cases reported to a single NGO in the period 2008-2009.Those most at risk include those in prison, non-Lebanese, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexualindividuals, drug addicts and women and children.

The report urges the Lebanese government to criminalize torture in line with UNCAT’s definition, which includes the exclusion of evidence gathered under torture, and redress to all victims of torture.

The NGO’s alternative report also says that, “Since 2005, Lebanon has been experiencing increased political instability. While the overall level of human rights protection has improved, this depends on the priorities of individual ministers rather than coherent policy decisions.”

Ghali said that while the government has made gradual steps in the field of human rights, including the creation of a committee for the prevention of torture, falling under the Internal Security Forces department of human rights, “they have not been concrete steps.”

According to Ghali, the U.N. Committee on Torture has been continuing to pressure the government to issue its own report. “The government has said they are working on one, but we have seen no official signs of this,” he added.

While the NGO’s main demands are legislative, Ghali also stressed the social aspect to the NGO’s work. “We also want to change the perceptions of the Lebanese society toward violence,” he said.

“We have to create a major social breakthrough on the issue of torture,” he added.

This work includes awareness campaigns, and training sessions for civil society organizations, journalists and lawyers. The report also urges the introduction of a comprehensive training for all law enforcement officials.

A systemic shift was needed at all levels of society, Ghali said, before torture is seen as an extrajudicial measure. The report states that, “In a socio-cultural study conducted by Alef on the acceptance of violence in Lebanon, it was found that the population accepts violence as an instrument of power and a tool to enforce power and control over opponents.”

In a 2011 survey by the NGO, 23 percent of respondents associated violence with “political violence” and 27 percent said they knew at least one person who had been beaten by state security agents.

“On the streets, we ask people about the use of torture, and many see it as a just measure,” Ghali added.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on December 29, 2011, on page 3.


(2011-12-29/The Daily Star)