By
Olivia Alabaster
BEIRUT:
The human rights organization Alef – Act for Human Rights released Wednesday
their alternative report into Lebanon’s progress with regard to international
conventions against torture, as the country has not issued a single report
since signing the convention in 2000.
While
Lebanon signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture over 10 years ago, the
government has not yet issued a report into its progress in carrying out the
recommended measures. States that have ratified the convention are expected to
issue reports every couple of years, and Lebanon was given a November 2011 deadline
by which to do so.
Civil
society organizations are invited to issue shadow reports into the issues,
alongside the government, to offer an alternative view the U.N. Committee on
Torture and, as such, Alef has now sent its report to the committee.
One
of the conditions of the UNCAT was the need for each state to create a National
Prevention Mechanism to monitor and prevent torture, according to George Ghali,
project assistant on the torture prevention program at Alef, who helped author
the NGO’s alternative report. However, an NPM has not yet been formed in
Lebanon, Ghali said.
Alef
has been monitoring torture in Lebanon over the last five years.
“Torture
is widespread,” according to the report, with over 700 cases reported to a
single NGO in the period 2008-2009.Those most at risk include those in prison,
non-Lebanese, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexualindividuals, drug addicts
and women and children.
The
report urges the Lebanese government to criminalize torture in line with
UNCAT’s definition, which includes the exclusion of evidence gathered under
torture, and redress to all victims of torture.
The
NGO’s alternative report also says that, “Since 2005, Lebanon has been
experiencing increased political instability. While the overall level of human rights
protection has improved, this depends on the priorities of individual ministers
rather than coherent policy decisions.”
Ghali
said that while the government has made gradual steps in the field of human
rights, including the creation of a committee for the prevention of torture,
falling under the Internal Security Forces department of human rights, “they
have not been concrete steps.”
According
to Ghali, the U.N. Committee on Torture has been continuing to pressure the
government to issue its own report. “The government has said they are working
on one, but we have seen no official signs of this,” he added.
While
the NGO’s main demands are legislative, Ghali also stressed the social aspect
to the NGO’s work. “We also want to change the perceptions of the Lebanese
society toward violence,” he said.
“We
have to create a major social breakthrough on the issue of torture,” he added.
This
work includes awareness campaigns, and training sessions for civil society
organizations,
A
systemic shift was needed at all levels of society, Ghali said, before torture
is seen as an extrajudicial measure. The report states that, “In a socio-cultural
study conducted by Alef on the acceptance of violence in Lebanon, it was found
that the population accepts violence as an instrument of power and a tool to
enforce power and control over opponents.”
In
a 2011 survey by the NGO, 23 percent of respondents associated violence with
“political violence” and 27 percent said they knew at least one person who had
been beaten by state security agents.
“On the streets, we ask
people about the use of torture, and many see it as a just measure,” Ghali
added.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-29/158224-human-rights-group-warns-torture-widespread-in-lebanon.ashx
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