BEIRUT — “Corrupt and incompetent Lebanese authorities” are responsible for plunging the country into “one of the worst economic crises in modern times, demonstrating a callous disregard for the rights of the population,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday in its World Report 2022.
Here’s what we know:
• Around 80 percent of Lebanon’s population now lives under the poverty line, and 36 percent in extreme poverty, an 8 percent increase since 2019, the annual report states.
• The report highlights people’s inability to access basic needs such as food, water, health care and education as the Lebanese lira lost 90 percent of its value since 2019.
• In relation to the 2020 Beirut port blast investigation “a Human Rights Watch investigation found evidence that strongly suggests that some government officials foresaw the death that the ammonium nitrate’s presence in the port could cause and tacitly accepted the risk. This amounts to a violation of the right to life,” according to the report.
• HRW accused leaders of having obstructed and delayed the probe into the blast.
• “Officials cracked down on freedom of opinion and speech,” the report noted. “The authorities use the inherently unfair military courts to intimidate people or retaliate against critical speech or activism.”