Nawaf Salam receives at the Grand Serail in Beirut a delegation from the Civil Forum for Support of the Implementation of Law No. 105/2018 concerning the disappeared and victims of enforced disappearance, on July 10, 2025. (Credit: Grand Serail's X account)
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Thursday that the decree to renew the mandate of the independent national commission responsible for the case of disappeared persons, which expired on July 3, "is ready and will be placed on the Cabinet agenda as soon as possible," the Grand Serail announced on X.
Salam was speaking during a meeting with a delegation from the Civil Forum for Support of the Implementation of Law No. 105/2018 on the disappeared and victims of enforced disappearance. The delegation called for the "full implementation of Law 105," adopted by Parliament on Nov. 13, 2018. This law marked a significant step forward in the search for the disappeared, especially from the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), after decades defined by a state policy of amnesia.
The National Commission for the Disappeared or Persons Subjected to Enforced Disappearance was created on June 18, 2020, to investigate the fate of the missing, locate and exhume burial sites, identify and return remains to families and award reparations. Law 105 grants the national commission a mandate to seek the truth, rather than assuming judicial responsibility.
After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 and the opening of Syrian prisons, many Lebanese families hoped to find relatives. Only a dozen managed to return home after surviving the ordeal of Syrian prisons. The number of Lebanese abducted during three decades of Syrian military presence in Lebanon (1976-2005) is estimated at 700, often due to their political views.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the prime minister received Akkar MP Walid Baarini, who was accompanied by a delegation of contract employees. The Sunni MP "presented the delegation’s demands, asking for the need to grant permanent employment status, especially since they have passed Civil Service Board exams for more than 11 years," the Grand Serail reported on X. For Akkar — a region suffering from lack of public services — Baarini raised "development issues, including the creation of a Civil Defense center in the governorate and the issue of the Meshmesh-Fneideq highway."
The prime minister also received a delegation from "Live Love Beirut," which presented an "environmental project and another on waste sorting at the source," according to the Grand Serail.
