Veteran human rights investigator Tirana Hassan speaking during an interview in central London on January 11, 2023. (Credit: AFP/File)
Tirana Hassan is the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Members of Lebanon’s LGBTQ+ community are constantly under threat and pressure. How can we explain the contraction of their freedoms?
The crackdown on LGBT organizing in Lebanon has been ongoing for some years. Since 2017, Lebanese security forces have regularly interfered with human rights events related to gender and sexuality and in 2022, following an unlawful directive issued by Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi, Lebanon’s government effectively banned any conference, activity, or demonstration related to or addressing homosexuality.
The rising anti-LGBT rhetoric by government officials and non-government actors has triggered panic among LGBT individuals and likely increased the already-pervasive online harassment and threats they face, for which they have no legal recourse.
Digital platforms have enabled the LGBT community to express themselves and amplify their voices, but they have also become tools for state-sponsored repression and increased access to LGBT people’s private lives. Dating applications and social media have made it easier for the state to search LGBT people’s personal devices and collect images, text messages, chats and other information that can be used to persecute them. The digital targeting of LGBT individuals has had far-reaching offline consequences, including blackmail and outing, family violence, and arbitrary arrests by Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces.
Freedom of expression and association seems to be in sharp decline in Lebanon and the Arab world. Journalists and activists have been targeted. How does Lebanon compare to the rest of the region?
It is worth underlining that we don’t compare situations in different countries.
In Lebanon, journalists, lawyers and activists continue to be summoned for investigation by Lebanon’s security services as a result of their work. In 2019, HRW documented the increasing use of Lebanon’s criminal insult and defamation laws by powerful political and religious figures to target and muzzle journalists, activists, and individuals accusing public officials of corruption or documenting the worsening of the political and economic situation in the country. Indeed, the cases of Jean Kassir and Lara Bitar earlier this year exemplify the risks Lebanese journalists face in exposing corruption and the culture of impunity in the country. Both journalists were summoned by various security services in response to articles published by their respective media organizations. Following public pressure and condemnation by rights organizations, the investigation against Kassir was dropped and Bitar’s case was moved to the Publications Court, in accordance with the law.
Lebanese authorities’ failure to seriously investigate the murder of writer and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim in 2021 is an alarming reflection of the threats that journalists and activists can face in Lebanon.
In a recent report HRW addressed the low mobility of women in the Middle East. What developments have you observed on the issue, particularly regarding Lebanon?
In Lebanon, and contrary to other countries in the MENA region, women have had the right to travel without their husbands’ permission since 1974. However, some religious personal status laws may consider a woman traveling or leaving the home without her husband’s permission as disobedience, resulting in her losing her right to spousal maintenance from her husband or establishing a ground for divorce.
With Lebanon in a years-long crisis, the question of the presence of Syrian refugees in the country constantly comes to the fore. What abuses have you observed?
In May and April 2023, the Lebanese Armed Forces arbitrarily arrested and summarily deported thousands of Syrians back to Syria, regardless of their refugee status and fears of persecution if returned. They were not given the chance to challenge their deportation and were sent to Syria only a few hours after they were arrested. Those without proof of legal residency were deported, which is particularly concerning given that, according to the latest study, 83 percent of the Syrian population in Lebanon lacks legal residency. Since 2015, Lebanese authorities have imposed regulations that effectively bar many Syrian refugees from obtaining or renewing their residency permits, heightening the risks of exploitation.
In October 2021, Human Rights Watch found that Syrian refugees who returned to Syria between 2017 and 2021 from Lebanon and Jordan faced grave human rights abuses and persecution at the hands of the Syrian government and affiliated militias — threats that persist today — underlining that Syria is not safe for returnees.
Children are also subject to discrimination. This year, the Education Ministry chose to cut off thousands of Syrian refugee students from classes in Lebanon. This followed the strikes by Lebanese teachers protesting the severe devaluation in their salaries and the resulting suspension of “morning shift” classes attended mainly by Lebanese students.
Regarding the double explosion at the port of Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020, what efforts is HRW undertaking to ensure an international investigation can see the light of day?
An in-depth investigation conducted by HRW found that the explosion resulted from the government’s failure to protect people’s right to life and highlighted the action, or lack thereof, by various security and political officials that allowed for the ammonium nitrate to be stored at the port in such dangerous conditions.
HRW continues to work with Lebanese and international organizations, survivors of the blast and the victims' families to push for a UN-mandated fact-finding mission into the blast. An international investigation is urgently needed, given Lebanese authorities’ continued obstruction of the domestic investigation. We have highlighted repeated political interference in the domestic investigation and the obstruction by politicians and public officials — notably through the filing of multiple lawsuits by the suspects against the investigative judge, with the result that the investigation has been effectively suspended since December 2021.
HRW has stressed the need for the adoption of a law to protect the independence of the judiciary in line with international standards. In particular, Lebanese authorities should amend the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedures to prevent the automatic suspension of judicial investigations when plaintiffs take legal action against the investigative judge.