Democracy, Human rights, and governance strategic assessment framework
Lebanon
Executive Summary
This report provides a political analysis of Lebanon and wishes to develop a strategy to advance its democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG). It is structured in a way where it demonstrates the role of sectarianism in the country and how it affects the promotion of democracy. Lebanon prides itself on the promotion of democratic votes where religious minorities each have a place within the Parliament. However, this system completely disregards the complication of having multiple religious institutions, with the overlapping of multiple pluralistic and civil laws. Furthermore, it widely excludes the inclusion of women within the ranks of the Parliament as multiple laws still stand to be discriminatory against women despite the country being a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). National human rights organizations such as the National Commission for Lebanese Women have been enacted to combat these discriminatory policies but still fell short in truly changing the system.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) works to promote U.S national security and economic prosperity, advocating a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience (USAID, 2014). The focus of this report is to examine the problem analysis of democracy in Lebanon and identify actors that would drive that reform.
Contextual Analysis
Lebanon has been scripted by the US as a state incapable of defending itself from its surroundings due to its small territory and susceptibility to American military intervention based on its ‘oil and politics being the key factors to influence the US to intervene (Fregonese, 2020). The neighbourhoods of the country are largely affected by the territorialization of sectarianism and confessionalism where the anticipation of future conflicts forms the services and infrastructures the citizens can access (Sanyal, 2021). Predominantly after the civil war in 1975, massive population displacements divided cities such as Beirut into homogenized, sectarian neighbourhoods (Sanyal, 2021). Although commonly disregarding civil wars such as these as conflicts on an ethnoreligious ground, it could not explain the full genesis of the occurrence. Lebanon’s externally created borders divided groups between states from its emergence from decolonization (Castellino & Cavanaugh, 2013). It has been governed as an integral part of an imperial metropole in contrast to overseas conies ever since its independence and has faced challenges in historically defining and delineating a national ‘us’ versus an imperial ‘other’ (Reilly, 2016). Moreso when the Lebanese textbook narrative emphasizes the independent rule that had emerged in Mount Lebanon during the Ottoman era (1516-1918) with key roles relayed by the leaders of politicized Maronite Christian and Druze confessional communities (Reilly, 2016).
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Lebanon is a consociation democracy where the balance of power is mediated between its religious communities. The structure was made in an effort to reduce interreligious disputes and maintain religious equality (Vaughan, 2018). The country adopts a sectarianism approach, which is commonly viewed as an extreme affiliation toward a specific religion as opposed to other religions (Bishara, 2018). The acknowledgment of a system of politics driven by religious groups or sects in society has mostly reduced divisions and spread violent conflict in that society (Alijla, 2016). However, there is merit in a religious ideology as it encourages the support of an existing social order based on the principles that appear to be part of God’s plan and that justice will eventually be served either way (Badaan, Richa & Jost, 2020). A sectarian society like Lebanon attempts to make religious assumptions system justifying by rationalizing and reinforcing differences and divisions amongst different religious sects, but this system is very complex and may result in severe and opposite consequences (Badaan, Richa & Jost, 2020). Especially in the aftermath of multiple external shocks and lack of internal political stability caused Lebanon to face the major challenge of being in soaring public debt, sluggish economic activity, increasing unemployment rate, and inflation (Mehanna & Haykal, 2016). Specifically, the impact of the Port of Beirut created implications at the national level and impacted the overall socioeconomic status of the country. This fuelled Lebanon’s long-standing structural vulnerabilities, especially with the country’s ongoing large macroeconomic imbalances, weak public financial management, low-grade infrastructure, and deteriorating social indicators (The World Bank, 2021).
Analysis of Challenges
Political consensus
According to the Fragile State Index (FSI), Lebanon does not seem to have a well-maintained political consensus with state legitimacy, public services, and human rights being on the lower end of the spectrum due to the division of religious political parties and the political instability that comes with it. Nevertheless, there seems to be a slight improvement for public services in 2020 but was overshot by a drastic decrease in 2022 when the inflation hit and affected the government’s ability to provide better public services.
Even though the constitution stated that the representation of the sectarian groups will remain just and unbiased within the civil service positions of high levels, it does not take into account the gender aspect of those positions (United States Department of State, 2020). Lebanon has prided itself on distributing these posts proportionately among major religious groups but completely disregarded the inclusion of women in these positions. The Lebanese constitution guarantees equality among its citizens in article 7 and has ratified several international conventions that seek to promote and protect human rights, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). However, Lebanese civil and religious laws remain to discriminate against women, regardless of the multiple political commitments made at the national and international levels. The laws within Lebanon’s legal framework repeatedly treat women as inferior to men, especially in the context of the country’s pluralistic religious law system, women are always placed in lower power and are not allowed to hold positions of power within the rulings (Dabbous, 2017).
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As an example, Article 562 greatly reduces the sentence of a man who kills or injures his wife or a female relative as long as he can prove to witness the victim undergoing illicit sexual intercourse. This article indirectly condones violence against women in an attempt to preserve the honor of the man (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 2006). In doing so it ignores domestic violence, much less any violence within marriage, and becomes a vehicle to glorify rape as a tool for honor rather than a crime of violence (Khalaf, 2010). 18 religious communities are recognized by the Lebanese legal system and characterized by legal pluralism which follows 15 separate laws regarding the personal status of their members (Dabbous, 2017). The multiplicity of religious laws magnifies the implications where Lebanese citizens are dictated differently in their lives based on the religious community to which they belong. Moreover, those in the religious courts do not undergo similar training when compared to civil judges, allowing them to input additional structural elements that prevent women from seeking justice. This places women in an already vulnerable position regarding their marital problems and forces them to sacrifice their basic rights in order to obtain the safety they have the right to.
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As a result, due to the oppressive nature of the majority, not a single resident in Lebanon can truthfully claim to be a minority. It is the everlasting conflicting fears and aspirations of these different components that continue to fuel the already confined and rapidly increasing social crisis in Lebanon today (Castellino & Cavanaugh, 2013).
Inclusion
Competition and Political Accountability
“Contest” was defined on a sectarian basis: a contest constituted the campaign for the seat or seats allotted to a particular sect in a particular district (Hudson, 1966). Countries like Lebanon often conduct a “dual game” of both electoral and non-electoral forms of political mobilization, especially since democratic governance is only partially institutionalized (Mainwaring, 2003). Non-electoral forms of political mobilization span out for a longer term and require a more comprehensive relationship between parties and supporters, including party meetings, peaceful demonstrations, and protests, and even participating in more volatile forms of cooperative activities such as riots or militia warfare (Cammett, 2011). However, overplaying the need to officially recognize multiple religious communities greatly limits competition and obstructs the participation of cross-communal or civic parties (Freedom house index, n.d). It opens the country to widespread corruption and major weaknesses in the rule of law despite the civil liberties and media pluralism that come with the increased representation of various religious communities. Moreso, it encourages the legal and societal constraints that affect a large population of the country’s noncitizens, including refugees and migrant workers that become severely restricted in their access to employment, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights.
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Predominantly it affects the informal economy which mostly consists of Lebanese nationals that are not covered by the plans curated by the Ministry of Public Health subsidies to cover overall hospitalization costs at private and non-private hospitals, even more so when these subsidies are often not systematically approved (Gilsenan, 1985). The lack of political accountability within the country prevails as issues of human rights and fractionalized elites remain at the high end of the spectrum and have never seen a decrease in more than 10 years. For example, the Bedouin face political exclusion and social discrimination in Lebanon where most do not even have citizenship (Chatty, Mansour & Yassin, 2013). They experience repeated xenophobic social discrimination from the Lebanese healthcare and policy actors as an added struggle to the less than adequate health services provided. Additionally, multiple criticisms of infringements of free speech occurred when streams of social-media-related activists has been arrested for being accused of defamation against leading politicians and party leaders (Hajj, 2020). Consequently, Lebanon’s encouragement of the representation of religious minorities within the political landscape can be seen as a goodwill of political competition. However, the underlying exclusion of certain sectors and lack of political accessibility for all groups reduces that notion to a mere political battle between the few fractionalized elites in the country.
Over-representation of political groups, to the point of possessing multiple laws, greatly impedes democratic development, increases gender discrimination, limits competition, and contributes to citizen apathy. This system encourages majoritarianism and disproportionately excludes multiple citizens from the services provided by a supposedly democratic state. It forces the exclusion of women in a system that actively promotes the unjust proceedings of multiple laws. The institutionalized power then becomes concentrated among the fractionalized elites who control political parties, governmental institutions and prevents the government from serving the interests and needs of the people, thus stifling the crucial political and economic development of the country.
The rule of law and human rights
Based on the FSI, the state of human rights within Lebanon has remained at the lower percentile due to the largely conflicting implications of having multiple religious laws which greatly affected the rights of the citizens. We can infer that having a large representation of various religious groups does not mean that the citizens possess equal (or even basic) rights.
As reported in the FSI, Lebanon also seems to have a low indicator of government responsiveness and effectiveness, with overall trends of public services, economy, and external intervention being radically low. Signifying the lack of accountability towards the implementation of laws and policies in the sectors that require the most support. Primarily towards the exorbitant amount of refugees that recently entered the country due to the neighbouring conflicts.
Government responsiveness and effectiveness
The graph shows the government’s effectiveness across two decades, demonstrating the increase in instability of the government.
Summary
Political Economy Analysis
Political parties and electoral institutions in Lebanon seem to be using a sort of ‘placebo’ method to sate the ‘representation’ of women within the cabinet. For example, the 2018 Parliamentary election prided itself on the highest number of registered women in the country’s history even though less than 5% of the total 128 Parliamentary seats are not occupied by women (Nassif, 2020). Women in Lebanon are only able to make fragmentary advancements in representation within the political scene and have never been able to crack the ‘political glass ceiling’. This is due to the political structure of the country itself as it greatly prohibits women’s political participation in every sector including sectarianism religious groups and political clientelism and familism (Nassif, 2020).
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Aside from the electoral system, Lebanon’s judicial system consisting of ordinary and religious courts brings multiple implications regarding women’s rights in the law. Despite ratifying CEDAW, Lebanon has not had a progression in gender equality in years, and some enduring barriers to women’s entry and career progression have not been addressed. Accordingly, inequalities persist and take many forms, most notably the unequal distribution of positions and judicial functions between men and women. Women continue to be absent from religious courts due to discriminatory religious provisions (Assi, 2018).
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In the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Lebanon formed the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) with the purpose to oversee the application of the goals of CEDAW and developing national strategies and programs for the empowerment of women in the country (Khalaf, 2010). The goal of the organization is to promote and enforce mechanisms and actions to institutionalize Gender Focal Points (GFPs) network within the Lebanese public and execute gender mainstreaming through public administrations (National Commission for Lebanese Women, n.d). They strive to foster the sharing of knowledge and curate a database that updates the various stakeholders on the activities and challenges affecting gender equality and women’s rights in Lebanon, such as producing publications of journals and research about Lebanese women in multiple languages to reach a wider audience. The national institution possesses a wide network of Lebanese non-governmental institutions and public institutions that have the same goals and would cooperate on issues related to gender mainstreaming. Additionally, attracting the attention of the “Promotion of Social Justice” program by the EU which helped organize a project to study the adoption of a quota system for women in Lebanon (NCLW, 2017).
The NCLW strives on producing knowledge to raise awareness on the issues surrounding women in Lebanon by producing reports and research in both English and Arabic, addressing the multiple laws and policies affecting women in the country. Up till now, the institution has published more than 30 reports since 2013. Furthermore, collaborations have been carried out with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to draft and update the National Strategy for Women in Lebanon. These collaborations work to facilitate the expertise of those within international organizations, civil society, and public institutions working in the field of women’s studies to update and report action plan that started in 2011 and has been updated every three years since (NCLW, n.d). Primarily the institution pushes for the change of discriminatory laws against women within the Lebanese constitution. The Parliamentary has acknowledged the laws of NCLW and the mission the institution carries out, allowing the official drawing of proposals on the advancement of women (NCLW, 1998)
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The public and national institutions of women’s rights in Lebanon possess a seemingly large capacity in terms of networking and collaborations with international organizations and providing well-researched reports on gender discrimination within the country. Additionally influencing the official decision-making in the Parliament when it comes to issues regarding women’s rights. However, no matter the influence and connections the institutions occupy, the actual implementation of change of policy appears to be lacking in that department. Therefore, it would be in the interest of USAID to offer support to these civil society and women’s organizations to further push for the change in policy regarding gender equality and mainstreaming. Providing a more international stage for the national institutions to bring upon advocacy and outreach to political parties to increase the inclusion of women within the political arena, allowing them to adopt a more aggressive stance with our backing. By providing a larger network to NCLW, we hope that they would be able to attract more attention to the government and be able to successfully lobby for legislative changes in removing policies that discriminate against the rights of Lebanese women. When women’s rights are secured only then there would be better representation and accountability for the citizens in Lebanon and the discriminatory policies within the constitution.
Statement of USAID and conceptions of democracy
The report highlights the issues of democracy, human resources, and governance in Lebanon. It uses the USAID template to further bring light on the developing democracy the country has yet possessed many implications that might suggest a more authoritarian system with Lebanon’s implementation of a sectarian government. The report chooses to demonstrate the issues of women’s rights within the country, suggesting support that USAID could provide to advocate for a more liberal stance within the country