If Lebanon’s parliamentarians postpone general elections for a third time, they will have more than doubled the time they were elected to serve, dashing the hopes of citizens who have been waiting to elect their representatives since 2013. The last general election was in June 2009. Because Lebanon’s voting age is 21, some people are close to turning 30 but have never had a chance to elect their parliamentary representatives. President Michel Aoun in April suspended parliament for one month, to allow parliamentarians more time to resolve debate over Lebanon’s electoral law and to avert an anticipated one year extension. But they have yet to come to an agreement, and Speaker Nabih Berri has once again postponed the legislative session until June 5.
An extension of parliament’s term would flout the 2014 Constitutional Council decision that found periodic elections to be “an absolute constitutional principle that shall not be breached,” and that tying elections to an agreement on an electoral law or any consideration “is incompatible with the Constitution.” As the council noted, an extension may also violate Lebanon’s international human rights obligations. And it would throw into limbo long awaited human rights reforms pending in parliament.
After years in which parliament was not meeting regularly due to a presidential vacuum that ended in 2016, Lebanon badly needs a functional parliament that can take up key legislative reforms. Bills are pending in parliament that would criminalize all forms of torture, abolish child marriage, remove civilians from the military court system, reform Lebanon’s domestic violence law, and repeal article 522 of the criminal code—which allows rapists who marry their victims to escape prosecution. And beyond what is immediately pending, legislative reforms are badly needed for issues from free speech to migrant domestic workers to LGBT rights.
Full Article: The Human Rights Cost of a Parliament Extension in Lebanon | Human Rights Watch.