pi_fp_liban_illustration.jpg

Lebanon

Capital city — Beirut

+
Panorama

Latest updates

In 2016, the UN Committee against Torture found that the medical services in Lebanese prisons and detention facilities did not meet the standards set out in the prison regulations. There is a lack of general practitioners, specialists (psychologists, psychiatrists, dentists), and medication for prisoners. Medical visits are infrequent, and the medical services do not meet all the prisoners’ needs.
The Committee stated that the team responsible for medical care includes:

  • a doctor, stationed in prison thrice a week and responsible for treating both prisoners and members of the Internal Security Forces (FSI);
  • a surgeon, available once a week;
  • an ENT specialist, available once a week;
  • a dentist, available once a week, and who only offers a “tooth-pulling” service.

The Committee has expressed concern about the lack of specialist doctors. Procedures for accessing consultations are slow, even when there is a medical emergency. Consultations with psychiatrists are not held on a regular basis. Civil society organisations are working to compensate for these shortages. Prisons under the Ministry of Defence are said to have better medical services. Prisoners receive a medical examination upon entry to prison and a visit from a psychiatrist twice a week if required. A dermatologist is reportedly present throughout the week. In cases of emergency, necessary medication and treatment would be provided.[^defense].

The Minister of the Interior launched the second phase of a project to reinforce the prison health system and access to care. This project was developed in collaboration with the Norwegian embassy and the World Health Organisation. It includes equipping healthcare units in prisons with basic materials and medical supplies.

  • A delegation of representatives from the Norwegian Embassy in Lebanon, members of the World Health Organization and other officials visited Barbar el-Khazen women’s prison in Beirut on 29 April. The delegation visited the prison’s medical clinic in particular. It was informed of the activities supported by the WHO and funded by the Norwegian Embassy. These activities include medical examinations, medical records digitisation, supplying equipment, promoting preventive measures and providing health education.

    i
    2024
    / National News Agency

Collective movements are recorded

-

There are frequent protests in Roumieh Prison.[^protestation] The UN Committee against Torture noted that prison overcrowding leads to loss of control by prison guards and subsequently prison riots, as was the case in 2011 and 2015.1
In 2011, prisoners rioted for four days. They demanded better living conditions and shorter pre-trial detention periods. Two prisoners were killed and around 40 were injured by the FSIs.
In 2015, a riot broke out after prisoners were transferred from Building B to a different building with more restrictive detention conditions.2 Prisoners burned mattresses, and broke doors, cameras, and lamps. The FSIs used violence to suppress the uprising. Some prisoners were tortured. Video footage was leaked and shared on social networks. The authorities acknowledged the events and pledged to conduct a transparent investigation and take disciplinary action.3
In 2020, protests broke out, in Roumieh, Qobbeh, and Zahle between March and July, amidst the COVID-19 health crisis.
In 2023, prisoners at Tyr prison (South Lebanon) protested against prison conditions by inflicting self-injuries using sharp objects.

  1. UN Committee against Torture, “Consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under Article 19 of the Convention, Initial reports of States Parties due in 2001”, 14 April 2016, § 435, p. 84. ↩

  2. ECPM’s investigators found that *“The media reported that visits by prisoners in Building B had previously been relatively unrestricted. Prisoners had mobile phones and knives at their disposal, and there was even an functional terrorist operation room in Building B.” ↩

  3. Human Rights Committee, “Concluding observations on the third periodic report of Lebanon” 9 May 2018, § 29, p. 6. ↩

  • A brawl between incarcerated individuals escalated into a riot on 10 June at Roumieh Prison. A member of the Internal Security Forces was taken hostage before being freed late in the afternoon. A fire of unreported origin was extinguished the same day.

    i
    10/06/2024
    / L'Orient-Le Jour

Number of escapes

69

(+)

i
2020
/ RFI

  • An incarcerated person escaped from the national security office in Beirut on the night of 27 to 28 March. He was arrested several hours later in Syria.

    i
    28/03/2024
    / L'Orient-Le Jour

The prosecution or imprisonment of a person on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity is banned

no

The law punishes any sexual practice considered “against the natural order”. This can result in a prison sentence ranging from one month to one year, and a fine of 200,000 to one million Lebanese pounds (Article 534 of the Penal Code).1

  1. Proud Lebanon, Report submitted to the Committee against Torture in the context of the initial review of Lebanon, “The LGBTI community in Lebanon”, 2017, p. 1. ↩

  • In July 2023, nine parliamentarians introduced a bill to repeal Article 534 of the Penal Code, which punishes “all sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature” with a year of imprisonment and a fine. In August, a parliamentarian and the Minister of Culture both responded with separate bills explicitly criminalising consensual same-sex relations and the “promotion of homosexuality”.

    i
    04/2024
    / Amnesty International, "The State of the World's Human Rights: April 2024", p. 238.

Observers reported that prisoners are transferred to hospitals in the event of an emergency. Since the beginning of the economic crisis, the government has failed to pay hospitals for the treatment of people in detention. The cost of transferring prisoners has reportedly been covered by the affected prisoner’s relatives. Numerous hospitals have therefore refused to admit patients from prison or demand payment in advance, even in cases of emergency. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, 846 prisoners were hospitalised in 2018, compared with only 107 in 2022.

Prisoners may only be hospitalised after 5 p.m., when cells are closed, if permission is granted by a public prosecutor. Whether or not emergency cases can be handled in the evening or at night depends on the aforementioned permission, and “on the prison staff’s goodwill, professionalism and skills in assessing the urgency of the situation”.1

  1. Lebanese Centre for Human Rights, “Prisons in Lebanon: Humanitarian and Legal Concerns”, 2010, p. 30. ↩

  • Some prisons are not equipped to handle medical emergencies. Several prisoners in Roumieh have died of heart attacks because they were not transferred in time to the nearest hospital. The reason given is the length of routine procedures.

    i
    2024
    / NOW Lebanon

Drinking water is free and available in all areas of the facilities

no

Civil society organisations have reported that drinking water is in short supply in prisons.1 In 2016, the UN Committee against Torture found that the water supply in these prisons is unsafe to drink. It is mainly used for personal hygiene and cleaning the facilities.2

  1. Civil Society Reports, “Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Third Round Lebanon“, 2020, p. 101. ↩

  2. UN Committee against Torture, “Consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under Article 19 of the Convention, Initial reports of States Parties due in 2001”, 14 April 2016, § 442 pp. 87. ↩

  • Due to shortages in correctional facilities, prisoners do not have access to drinking water, and they do not have sufficient resources to purchase bottled water.

    i
    16/02/2024
    / NOW Lebanon

The prison staff is represented by (a) union(s)

no

  • Doctors and medical personnel went on strike in February 2024 to protest low salaries.

    i
    16/02/2024
    / NOW Lebanon

Food services are managed by

the prison administration

Meals are either prepared by a cook, like in Qobbeh Prison, or by the prisoners themselves, such as in Roumieh.1

In March 2021, Lebanon’s National Committee for the Prevention of Torture (NHRC-CPT) noticed that large amounts of food supplies were donated to the prison by Dar Al Fatwah - a government institution responsible for issuing legal rulings specific to the Sunni community, administering religious schools, and overseeing mosques.2

  1. Together against the Death Penalty, Carole Berrih and Karim El Mufti, “Living Without Being: Fact-Finding Mission, Lebanon”, 2020, p. 106. ↩

  2. National Human Right Commission including the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (NHRC-CPT) / Lebanon’s National CPT – Report to the UNSPT, 2022, p. 12 ↩

  • Six companies have threatened the Internal Security Forces, saying they will stop providing supplies to various Lebanese prisons starting on 31 December 2023. They usually supply the Roumieh, Zahle and Tripoli prisons and the Baabda women’s prison. The companies have been awaiting payment since 2020, which the government cannot honour due to inflation. Their ultimatum was re-issued in January 2024.

    i
    26/12/2023
    / NOW Lebanon

In 2016, foreign prisoners were mainly Syrian (27%), Palestinian (6.3%), Egyptian (0.5%) and Sudanese (0.2%).1 The war in Syria caused many Syrian nationals to come to Lebanon. Most of them (73%) do not have legal residence and have settled in so-called wilderness camps. This has resulted in arrests and convictions of Syrians for “abuses and disturbances of public order”. Amnesty International has also reported that hundreds of Syrian nationals have been arbitrarily arrested since 2011 for alleged terrorism or affiliation with armed groups.

  1. Caritas Lebanon, European Research Institute, “Access to legal aid services in Lebanese prisons“, 4 mars 2017, p. 13. ↩

  • Four Syrian prisoners at Roumieh Prison threatened to hang themselves for fear of being sent back to Syria. Around 2,000 Syrian nationals are imprisoned in Lebanon.

    i
    07/03/2024
    / France 24

All inmates are admitted to prison with a valid commitment order

no

Civil society organisations have reported cases of arbitrary detention. The Lebanese Centre for Human Rights (CLDH) published two reports on this issue, one in 2011 and the other in 2016. They stated that hundreds of people arrested for “security reasons” were allegedly subjected to procedural violations. In 2017, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention published an opinion on the case of Nizar Bou Nasr Eddine, a colonel in the Internal Security Forces (FSI), who was arrested and detained for alleged corruption. Mr Bou Nasr Eddine was arrested in April 2016 without a warrant and held in police custody, without legal justification and without access to a lawyer, for 40 days. In 2020, another opinion was published on the case of Hassan Al-Dika. The Working Group found that Mr Al-Dika was arrested and detained in 2018 without a fair trial. He was tortured and forced to sign a confession. Three UN independent experts sent a letter to the Lebanese government, expressing their “grave concern about the allegations of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Mr Al-Dika since his arrest”. There have been numerous arbitrary arrests of protestors ever since the mass protests that swept the country in 2019. Amnesty International denounced the arbitrary arrest and detention of Syrian refugees accused of terrorism. The NGO interviewed them in March 2021. It found that “they had not been informed of the reason for their arrest and were denied access to a lawyer or their family in the early stages of their detention.”1

  1. Amnesty, “Lebanon: ‘I Wished I Would Die’ - Syrian refugees arbitrarily detained on terrorism-related charges and tortured in Lebanon”, 23 March 2021. ↩

  • On 16 January 2024, Human Rights Watch called on Lebanese authorities to release Hannibal Kadhafi immediately. Kadhafi has been in unlawful pre-trial imprisonment since December 2015 on the basis of “spurious charges”. He is accused by the Lebanese authorities of having withheld information and of having participated in the kidnapping of the Lebanese Shiite Imam Moussa al-Sadr. Kadhafi was only two years old at the time of al-Sadr’s disappearance.

    i
    16/01/2024
    / Human Rights Watch