Joint submission for the UPR of Lebanon 37th session of the UPR Working Group (January-February 2021) Centre for Defending Civil Rights and Liberties (CDCRL) Submitted on 9 July 2020 For more information, please contact: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Rue de Varembé 1, Case Postale 28, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland Email: [email protected]| Tel: +41 (0) 22919 70 80 | Web: wilpf.org About the submitting organisations Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in 1915, and since then it has united women around the globe to work for peace by non-violent means and by promoting political, economic, and social justice for all. WILPF addresses the root causes of war and violence through a feminist lens and constantly challenges systems of oppression, militarism, patriarchy, and neoliberalism. Lebanese Committee for Peace and Freedom (LCPF), or WILPF Lebanon, is a non-profit organization based in Beirut. WILPF Lebanon section was created in 1963 to voice women’s and political concerns in the Middle East. WILPF Lebanon works on the localization of the international program set up by the global network. The core work falls within achieving sustainable peace based on economic, political and social justice, gender equality and human rights. WILPF Lebanon was until 2019 focusing its work on providing Syrian refugee education and learning centre in one of the camps; work on environment issues with special emphasis on the Fridays for Future, on peace education, disarmament, violence against women and human rights. Permanent Peace Movement (PPM) is an independent Lebanese non-governmental organization founded in 1989 at the height of the Lebanese civil war by a group of young university students unified by their common vision of the future and their aversion to war. PPM works on building peace in the local, national and international communities through spreading the culture of peace and transforming/preventing conflicts. It also strives to empower individuals and institutions enabling them to play their respective roles in this field. Centre for Defending Civil Rights and Liberties (CDCRL) is a Lebanese Not-For-Profit non-governmental organisation focusing on providing pro bono legal support to groups and individuals with no or little access to justice, and to victims of human rights violations, with focus on refugees, women, journalists and activists. Abbreviations ATT Arms Trade Treaty CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CERD Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination CESCR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights CSOs Civil society organisations FPM Free Patriotic Movement GBV Gender-based violence ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ICPMW International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers ILO International Labour Organization LGBTIQ+ Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Intersex-Queer + MDWs Migrant Domestic Workers NAP National Action Plan SALW Small and Light Weapons SIPRI Stockholm International Peace Research Institute UNSCR 1325 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 UPR Universal Periodic Review UPRII Second cycle of the UPR Contents I. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 II. Implementation and ratification of international human rights instruments ............................... 1 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 2 III. Hate speech, xenophobia and the suppression of dissent ............................................................ 2 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 4 IV. Gendered impacts of small arms proliferation ............................................................................... 4 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 7 V. Women’s participation in the political life ...................................................................................... 8 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 10 VI. Environmental issues .................................................................................................................... 11 Wastewater management .................................................................................................................... 11 Bisri dam controversy ........................................................................................................................... 13 Forest degradation ................................................................................................................................ 13 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 14 VII. Migrant domestic workers ............................................................................................................. 15 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 18 VIII. Women’s economic and social rights ........................................................................................... 18 Women’s employment, informal work and unpaid care work ............................................................ 18 Gendered impacts of the economic crisis and of austerity measures .............................................. 20 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 22 ANNEX ........................................................................................................................................................ 22 I. Introduction 1. In the UPR second cycle (UPRII), Lebanon received 219 recommendations,1 56 of which pertain specifically to women’s rights, including 34 about the Personal Status Laws and 13 relating to refugee women. Lebanon noted all recommendations about amending the Personal Status Laws but supported all recommendations relating to women’s participation in public and political life. It also noted all recommendations on refugees, asylum seekers and migrants but supported a number of recommendations on the well-being and legal situation of migrant domestic workers.2 2. This submission highlights the continuing failure of the failure of the Lebanese government to to implement UPR recommendations. It illustrates the deteriorating political and economic situation and its impact on women and girls. II. Implementation and ratification of international human rights instruments 3. Many discriminatory provisions against women and girls remain in the legislation and no concrete steps have been adopted to repeal them. While Lebanon has submitted a number of its reports to UN treaty bodies, it has not implemented many of their recommendations, e.g. in relation to reforming the Personal Status laws and abolishing the Kafala system.3 In addition, it has yet to ratify 1 Report of the Working Group for the Universal Periodic Review of Lebanon, 2015, available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/289/55/PDF/G1528955.pdf?OpenElement. The matrix of UPRII recommendations is available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/LBindex.aspx 2 Lebanon supported recommendations 132.204: Strengthen efforts to improve the well-being of women migrant workers in Lebanon and their rights (Sri Lanka); 132.198: Improve the legal situation of migrant workers (Austria); 132.199: Further strengthen the promotion and protection of rights of foreign workers (Bangladesh); 132.205: Improve the situation of the foreign workers including female domestic workers as they constitute a vulnerable group (Senegal); 132.195:Take into particular consideration the vulnerable situation of migrants and refugees in the country, in particular women and children (Nicaragua). 3Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, Concluding observations on the combined fourth and fifth periodic reports of Lebanon, CEDAW/C/LBN/CO/4-5, 24 November 2015 paragraphs: 20, 28(b), 46(a) and 38(c), available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CEDAW.aspx; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding observations on the combined eighteenth to twenty-second periodic reports of Lebanon, CERD/C/LBN/CO/18-22, 5 October 2015, paragraph: 42(a). Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Lebanon, E/C.12/LBN/CO/2, 24 October 2016, paragraphs 36(c), available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CERD.aspx 1 several human rights treaties, such as the Optional Protocols to CEDAW and to the IESCR as well as the ICPMW.4 Recommendations • Ratify remaining human rights treaties5 and implement outstanding recommendations by human rights bodies, including by developing a comprehensive national human rights plan through a meaningful consultation process with CSOs, with dedicated resources, specific targets and adequate