News
Lebanon Celebrates International Right to Know Day
On September 30, the National Network for the Right of Access to Information in Lebanon (the Network) organized a press conference in Beirut to celebrate International Right to Know Day. The press conference incorporated remarks from the Minister of State for Administrative Reform H.E. Ibrahim Shamseddine, the Minister of Interior and Municipalities H.E. Ziyad Baroud, Secretary General of the Lebanese Transparency Association Fadi Saab, Acting Program Director at the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) Marilyn Zelin, and Lebanese parliamentarians Ghassan Moukheiber, Walid Khoury and Ismail Sukkariyah. Read more »»
Human Rights Moot Court Held in Lebanon
During July and August, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI’s) Lebanon office organized a mock Arab Regional Court of Human Rights, modeled after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The activity was supported by a mini-grant from ABA ROLI’s Access to Justice and Human Rights focal area. Read more »»
Lebanese National Anti-Corruption Network Advocates Parliament to Support Access to Information Bill
In May 2009, the Lebanese Parliamentarians Against Corruption (LebPAC) and Nahwa al Muwatiniya (Na’am), ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) partner organizations and members of the ABA ROLI-supported National Network for the Right of Access to Information, began a campaign encouraging members of parliament to support the country’s access to information bill. If passed, the bill, which fosters enhanced transparency in government, will mark an important step in anti-corruption efforts. Read more »»
Lebanese Law Students Participate in Second Annual Moot Court Competition
In late October, La Sagesse University in Beirut, Lebanon, held its second annual moot court competition. Participants included 11 fourth-year law students who acted as either prosecutor or defense counsel for a fictitious defendant in a simulated International Criminal Court proceeding. The simulated proceeding raised complex issues, such as admissibility of the case in view of an earlier amnesty decision and the applicability of the doctrine of command responsibility. Read more »»
Programs
Law clinic
Legal education in Lebanon currently adheres to a strict four-year curriculum made up primarily of coursework. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI’s) clinical legal education program works to strengthen the rule of law by introducing a new generation of advocates to the core concepts of human rights and their application, and by developing a culture of public interest advocacy through hands-on practical legal experience.
Course development and implementation
In January 2007, ABA ROLI began cooperating with the University of La Sagesse’s Faculty of Law (l’Institut Supérieur de la Sagesse pour l’Enseignement des Droits, or ISSED) to develop and implement a year-long course focusing on substantive national and international human rights laws, skills training, clinical practice, and research and outreach. Law faculty representatives and other Lebanese legal and human rights experts participated in a working group which developed the course. ABA ROLI provided technical assistance in the development of the curriculum and provided interactive-teaching training to faculty selected to teach the course, to introduce them to techniques such as role plays, simulations and moot court exercises. The course was launched in October 2007 with a session on professional ethics.
Clinical practice
The clinical phase of the program supported the provision of pro bono legal services to juvenile delinquents, migrant workers, refugees and women, as well as the development of advocacy campaigns and research projects related to the human rights curriculum. The students providing consultations worked under the supervision of licensed practicing attorneys. Those working on advocacy interned with Lebanese human rights advocacy groups, and students focused on research were supervised by ISSED professors.
In the last months of the program, which closed on December 31, 2008, ABA ROLI focused its assistance on helping the university institutionalize the course, which is now officially incorporated into the ISSED curriculum for fourth-year students. The second academic year of the human rights course and clinic is now underway, with more than 90 students enrolled and 70 students pursuing clinical work on 17 distinct projects with 14 local, regional and international institutions involved in the program. For the second year, La Sagesse also hired a human rights professor to teach the theoretical component of the course and to coordinate the clinical component.
Anti-Corruption
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) is providing technical legal assistance to a Lebanese-led program to coordinate and focus anti-corruption efforts by governmental and non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians and professional associations, including drafting, and advocating and lobbying for high-quality freedom of information (FOI) and whistleblower protection legislation. The program also seeks to boost public awareness about anti-corruption efforts as well as the value of FOI and whistleblower protection. In implementing this program, ABA ROLI partners with the National Network for the Right of Access to Information, established in April 2008. The network comprises 17 institutions and organizations committed to corruption reform in Lebanon. With ABA ROLI’s support, the network has established a steering committee and conducts its activities through two working groups: the legal working group and the advocacy working group.
The legal working group has, with assistance from seasoned international legal experts, drafted an access to information legislation. The draft was submitted to parliament in April 2009 by the Lebanese Parliamentarians Against Corruption (LebPac), which is a member of the network. The group is also drafting a whistleblower protection law and plans to submit it to parliament in October.
With ABA ROLI’s support, the advocacy working group developed a comprehensive action plan to raise awareness about the right of access to information and whistleblower protection. The plan, informed by research conducted by the Focus Group Research Center at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, is meant to build citizens’ capacity to claim their right for access to information and for protection when reporting corruption, and to encourage stakeholders to support the passage of relevant laws. In April 2009, ABA ROLI awarded three organizations within the network subgrants to help them implement the plan. ABA ROLI also provided support for the development of an online resource center (www.a2ilebanon.net; www.khabrouna.net) for local, regional and international legislation governing access to information and whistleblower protection.
To learn more about our work in Lebanon, contact the ABA Rule of Law Initiative at <rol@staff.abanet.org>.
For more information about the ABA ROLI in Lebanon, contact:
Ashley Burgin
Program Associate
ABA Rule of Law Initiative
Middle East and North Africa Division
740 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
E-mail: aburgin@staff.abanet.org
Background
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) established its office in Beirut, Lebanon in January 2007. Its programs focus on human rights, clinical legal education and anti-corruption. Major accomplishments of the programs include the initiation of a human rights clinic at the University of La Sagesse’s Faculty of Law, preparation for the University’s first moot court competition, and the formation of a national multi-sector network on the right to access to information. ABA ROLI’s programs in Lebanon are financially supported through grants from the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
