The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A draft law on civil personal status is once again scheduled to be discussed during meetings of parliamentary committees Thursday.
The issue made it into the spotlight this week when Hezbollah said Monday it was against adopting such a law as it “contradicts completely the sacred Shariah.”
The draft law, which tackles civil marriage, child custody, adoption and inheritance, was composed by civil society activists, many of whom don’t believe it will receive real attention from the Parliament.
“Of course we don’t expect them to consider it seriously,” said Tony Daoud, from the organization Chaml, which has been campaigning for a law on civil personal status for three years.
Civil society organizations delivered the draft law on March 18 to the Parliament’s committees, which have been postponing a review of the proposal for the past few weeks.
The organizations are now asking that the draft law be transferred to a special committee.
“This is part of our strategy. We’re now trying to negotiate a transfer [of the law] to another [specialized] committee,” said Daoud, adding that in the meantime, campaigning on the issue would continue.
“This is a very important case for our society and it should be treated as such,” Daoud said. “It’s not acceptable that people [from different religious sects] have to go get married in Cyprus,” he added.
Personal status matters currently fall under the authority of the country’s 18 sects, a system that dates to Lebanon’s independence.
Under the mandate of former President Elias Hrawi, the Cabinet approved a draft law on civil personal status submitted by the Syrian Social National Party, but the proposal didn’t make any progress after that.
Speaking at a conference on the issue at the Catholic Media Center Tuesday, attorney Ibrahim Traboulsi emphasized that passing a civil law on personal status would not entail revoking the existing religious laws on personal status.
“We should not picture the project of a law on civil personal status as a conflict between those who support it and religious authorities, as it wouldn’t cancel what already exists,” he said, adding it would only provide people with the ability to choose.
Traboulsi said that Article 9 of the Constitution guarantees respect for personal status laws of all sects, but it is also the duty of the state to offer alternatives for those who do not recognize themselves as belonging to any of the country’s sects.
“The state needs to pass laws for those who don’t belong to these sects,” he said.
Priest Abdo Abu Kasm, director of the Catholic Media Center, hoped the discussion of the draft law by Parliament would be a step toward implementing the law, but acknowledged that “developing a law on personal status will take a lot of courage and wisdom.”
He insisted on the need to “modernize and develop” laws on personal status “in a way that serves individual freedoms regardless of sects and religions,” and that would “protect children and safeguard them from legal conflicts.”
Abu Kasm also lamented that within the Christian community, the current system leads many couples to convert to another Christian sect in order to facilitate divorce.
For his part, Traboulsi suggested that religious leaders should act to contain this behavior.
“Sects’ leaders should sign an agreement to reject changing sects for family arrangements,” he said.
According to Abu Kasm, “the reason behind this fraudulent behavior is the absence of a secular law on personal status that protects individuals regardless of sects and religions.”
But, he said that “issuing such a law is impossible in the context of a sectarian system.”
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