Since 2007, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) has collaborated with a range of partners in Lebanon to implement programs to improve legal education, build skills among legal professionals, fight corruption, increase government transparency, and provide legal information and assistance to vulnerable groups, including refugees.
Working with law faculties, civil society, and bar associations, ABA ROLI established Lebanon’s first human rights law clinic at La Sagesse University in Beirut and supported a pioneering initiative in Lebanon’s north to establish and staff a legal assistance center to serve the region’s most vulnerable groups. Through a comprehensive assessment, ABA ROLI enhanced the understanding of Lebanon’s criminal case processing and sentencing framework, shed light on the composition of the Lebanese prison population, identified the underlying causes of the high rate of pre-trial detainees in Lebanese prisons, and recommended alternatives to incarceration and changes to detention and sentencing procedures.
ABA ROLI successfully supported the establishment of a multi-sector Lebanese network to promote transparency and combat corruption in Lebanon. With ABA ROLI’s technical assistance, the Network drafted legislation and raised public awareness about transparency and anti-corruption efforts. ABA ROLI’s support for legislative reform resulted in the recent enactment of laws on whistleblower protection (2018) and access to information (2017).