Lebanon
Lebanon Edges Closer Toward Truth for Families of the Missing and Disappeared
Nour El Bejjani Noureddine, ICTJ
Life continues to stand still for the many families of the missing and disappeared in Lebanon who have been desperately trying to uncover the fate of their loved ones and who are holding out hope of seeing them someday. The Lebanese War ended 28 years ago, but for these families the war rages on. During Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, thousands of people went missing or were disappeared without a trace or explanation. Their families have never stopped waiting for answers, answers they fear will never come. The Lebanese government has failed to adequately address the issue of the missing...
Swiss judge delivers harsh criticism of Lebanon Tribunal
Pierre Hazan, JusticeInfo editorial advisor and professor at Neuchâtel University
Robert Roth, professor of law at the University of Geneva and former judge of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has for the first time explained why he resigned from that court in September 2013. He points in particular to a lack of independence of the STL, which he says has succumbed to multiple political pressures. On February 14, 2005, a huge explosion rocked Beirut not far from the seafront. 1,800 kilos of dynamite had just blown up the car of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, killing him and the other occupants. One of Lebanon’s most powerful figures (although no longer in an...
A movie takes on taboos of Lebanon's civil war
AFP
Nearly three decades after it ended, Lebanon's civil war returned to haunt Beirut this week at a screening of the film "The Insult," which forcefully explores the taboos of the conflict. The movie opened to rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival, earning accolades for its French-Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri and a Volpi Cup for Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha. The advance screening on Tuesday was overshadowed somewhat by Doueiri's brief detention for filming in 2012 in Israel despite Lebanese legislation banning citizens from visiting the Jewish state. But viewers still packed...
Week in Review: Lebanon’s Missing Persons and Africa vs the ICC
François Sergent, Justiceinfo.net
Transitional justice is not just about big trials, Truth Commissions and reconciliation processes. This week, Justiceinfo.net looked at the missing persons from Lebanon’s wars, forgotten by history and by a weak State. A government record of war-time casualties put the number of missing persons at 17,415, but this figure has never been cross-checked or verified, and families are still waiting to know what happened to their loved ones. Faced with the silence and indifference of the authorities, a Lebanese NGO, Act for the Disappeared, has taken up the cause and created a searchable...
No resolution for the missing persons in Lebanon
“I was 13 the day I disappeared; the day my mother was left without her only child; the day my life was cut short. Many others went missing like me, and their families still await to know what happened to them. Do not let our story end here.” Every Wednesday, local newspapers have been publishing such testimonies - stories written in the first person of women, men, or as in this case, children, who went missing in Lebanon during its 15-year war. These stories are part of the campaign “Do not let my story end here”, orchestrated by the Lebanese NGO Act for the Disappeared, to accompany...
The Time Bomb that is Lebanon
Pierre Hazan, JusticeInfo.net Head of Project, associate professor at Neuchâtel University
In Lebanon, the last household waste processing centre stopped working on July 17. The country has been buried in tons of rubbish for weeks. Parents are worried about mounds of waste in front of schools that could put their children’s health at risk. On November 25, a big bonfire of rubbish blocked the highway between Jounieh and Ghazir, whilst the heat of the flames damaged the foundations of the Maameltein bridge. Every day, daily newspaper Orient le Jour publishes an article denouncing the “saboteurs of the Republic”, politicians who don’t care if they wreck the State institutions and put...