iloubnan - The Lebanese Centre for Human Rights calls upon the relevant Ministries to immediately solve the situation in prisons - April 5, 2011

"We want acts!" said CLDH in a communiqué issued on Tuesday, in reference to the situation that prevails in Lebanese prisons, and especially in Roumieh prison, where riots have been witnessed for several days. "Today, we solemnly call on the Ministers of Justice and Interior to kindly choose in their department a room of approximately 8 meters square with only a small window and a tape, to have mattresses installed to cover the ground, and to lock themselves in with 5 strangers for 24 hours, without leaving the room, to express their solidarity with inmates of Lebanese prisons."

CLDH (Lebanese Center for Human Rights) stated in his communiqué that "the way people are being treated in Lebanese prisons is unacceptable".

"On the issue of prisons, state actors keep on passing the buck and express themselves as if they were representing the civil society and had no control over the chronic human catastrophe that is expressed today, before our eyes, by riots in Roumieh central prison."

"Too busy ordering the conduct of researches, participating in endless consultations, drafting recommendations on prisons that do not change anything in the situation, officials have forgotten that the Lebanese prisons resemble more and more places of death overcrowded by people who, whatever they may have committed, become victims," CLDH's communiqué said, adding that everyone knows the kind of reforms that must be undertaken.

"The prisons must be emptied, as soon as possible, to put an end to the unacceptable suffering of persons, of which 70% are presumed innocent, or have finished serving their sentences. We urge the Council of Ministers to grant the Ministers of Justice and Interior full support for immediate and radical decisions and reforms that will allow the release of thousands of victims," the communiqué concluded.