Lebanon is not an electoral democracy. Although the 2009 parliamentary elections were conducted peacefully and judged to be free and fair in some respects, vote buying was reported to be rampant, and the electoral framework retained a number of fundamental structural flaws linked to the country’s sectarian political system.
The president is selected every six years by the 128-member National Assembly, which in turn is elected for four-year terms. The president and parliament nominate the prime minister, who, along with the president, chooses the cabinet, subject to parliamentary approval. The unwritten National Pact of 1943 stipulates that the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the National Assembly a Shiite Muslim. Parliamentary seats are divided among major sects under a constitutional formula that does not reflect their current demographic weight. Shiites comprise at least a third of the population, but they are allotted only 21 percent of parliamentary seats. The sectarian political balance has been periodically reaffirmed and occasionally modified by foreign-brokered agreements like the 1989 Taif accords and the 2008 Doha Agreement.
The 2009 parliamentary elections were conducted under the 2008 election law, which stemmed from the Doha agreement. It condensed nationwide voting into a single day, introduced some curbs on campaign finance and advertising, and created smaller, more religiously homogeneous districts. However, some important changes that were scheduled to come into force by the time of the 2010 municipal elections—including the reduction of the voting age to 18 from 21, a system allowing expatriates to vote abroad, the provision of preprinted ballots, quotas for women, and institutional reforms to strengthen political parties—were delayed due to sectarian and partisan concerns. As a result, the elections were conducted under the old municipal elections law, which predated the positive reforms in the 2008 law covering parliamentary elections. While the municipal voting was generally free of violence and other irregularities, it was not competitive, as party leaders cut deals with their rivals to avoid divisive campaigning. The only competitive elections occurred in certain Christian districts, and in one case a political leader accused the president of interfering inappropriately to secure the victory of his relative.
The sectarian political system and the powerful role of foreign patrons effectively limits the accountability of elected officials to the public at large. Political and bureaucratic corruption is widespread, especially in the construction sector. Businesses routinely pay bribes and cultivate ties with politicians to win contracts, and anticorruption laws are loosely enforced. Lebanon was ranked 127 out of 178 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Lebanonhas a long tradition of press freedom, though nearly all media outlets have ties to political groups. There are seven privately owned television stations and dozens of privately owned radio and print outlets that reflect a range of views. Internet access is not restricted. Vaguely worded laws that could be used to ban critical reporting on Syria, foreign leaders, the military, the judiciary, and the presidency remain in effect.While officials generally choose not to enforce such restrictions, they were applied in isolated cases during 2010. Military intelligence officials interrogated a blogger for posting articles that criticized the army and the confessional political system in March, and in July four people were arrested for creating a group on the social-networking site Facebook that criticized the president. A journalist was interrogated illegally in August after publishing accusations that members of the army’s leadership had worked with Israel. Religious leaders of all sects also have formal and informal power to censor media they consider offensive. In August, an Iranian-produced television series depicting the life of Jesus from an Islamic perspective was pulled due to Christian leaders’ objections. The series of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian journalists between 2005 and 2008 have all gone unpunished to date. One journalist died and another was injured by Israeli fire during the August 2010 border clash.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution and protected in practice. However, informal religious discrimination is common. In 2009, the Interior Ministry allowed citizens not to list their religion on their national identity cards or national registration, the first time in Lebanese history that identification cards did not immediately identify individuals as a member of a religious group. The reform has had little practical effect, since the country’s political system is based on sectarian quotas. Those who delete their religion from their national registration therefore seriously limit their ability to hold government positions or run for political office. Academic freedom is firmly established.
Rights to freedom of association and assembly are generally unrestricted. On several occasions in recent years, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have rallied in favor of or in opposition to the government.Lebanon’s civil society is vibrant, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights groups, operate openly. The government requires notification of an NGO’s formation. The Interior Ministry has at times transformed this into an approval process and has been known to conduct inquiries into an organization’s founding members. NGOs must invite ministry representatives to votes on bylaws or boards of directors. All workers except those in government may establish unions, which have the right to strike and bargain collectively. In recent years, unions have been closely affiliated with political groupings, and labor concerns have thus taken a back seat to union-based political activity.
The judiciary is ostensibly independent, but it is subject to heavy political influence in practice. The Judicial Council nominates judges, who are then approved by the Justice Ministry. Both government and opposition parties vet judicial appointments. International standards of criminal procedure are generally observed in the regular judiciary, but not in the military courts, which consist largely of military officers with no legal training. Though civilian oversight is guaranteed in theory, it is very difficult for civilians to observe the trials in practice, and in some cases defendants have no right to appeal. The military courts are tasked with trying more than 100 people who were accused of spying for Israel in 2009 and 2010, as well as Fatah al-Islam militants and individuals involved in the sectarian clashes of August 2010.
The security forces’ practice of arbitrary detention has declined since 2005, though isolated incidents still occur. In March 2010, authorities seized the passport of an advocate for Iraqi refugees for two days, and in August they held a prominent critic of the government’s Nahr el-Bared policy incommunicado for 24 hours and then denied him access to his lawyer or family. While the government has made some progress toward ending torture since 2007, new legislation and regulations on the issue are often not enforced, and the use of torture remains widespread in security-related cases. Prison conditions are poor.
Nearly 350,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon are denied citizenship rights and face employment and property restrictions. A law passed in August 2010 eased conditions somewhat by allowing them access to social security benefits, end-of-service compensation, and the right to bring complaints before labor courts. However, the law effectively left several highly skilled professions closed to Palestinians, retained very high bars to their entering other skilled professions, and did not remove restrictions on property ownership.
The estimated 50,000 Iraqi refugees in Lebanon also face employment and property restrictions. According to Human Rights Watch, as of March 2010, about 100 remained jailed on illegal immigration charges, down from 580 in 2007, and 40 of the 100 were being “voluntarily” detained to avoid repatriation. An August 2009 government study reportedly found that 13 percent of detainees in Lebanese jails were foreigners whose formal sentences had expired. There is also a substantial Sudanese refugee population in Lebanon. Most of them do not enjoy official refugee status and thus face arbitrary detention, deportation, and harassment. In June 2010, police conducted a raid on an event held by Sudanese, Ethiopians, and Somalis; even those residing legally in Lebanon reported being beaten and arrested.
Women enjoy many of the same rights as men, but they experience some social and legal discrimination. Since personal-status matters are adjudicated by each sect’s religious authorities, women are subject to discriminatory rules governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody. Women are underrepresented in politics, holding only four parliamentary seats, and do not receive equal social-security provisions. Men convicted of so-called honor crimes against women usually receive lenient sentences. Female foreign household workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. The Labor Ministry in 2009 introduced a uniform contract for household workers that guaranteed weekly time off and other basic protections, but according to the U.S. State Department’s 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report, arriving foreign workers must sign the contract in Arabic, which most cannot read.