By
Karim El Mufti
Published in Beirut Today, on October 20, 2019
Both celebrated and cursed, the
Lebanese resilience –or capacity to endure the toughest of situations
and contexts, is engraved in the known saying: “Like a Phoenix, Lebanon
shall always rise from its ashes.”
For the past 50 years, the Lebanese
have overcome wars, terrorism, security clashes, and Israeli aggressions, managing to rebuild their homes, secure their livelihoods
and raise their children. They have endured all types of crises, up
until the most recent monetary and financial strains, all while suffering from a political class that has been feeding off State spoils for decades.
As greater corruption lies among the most crucial challenges, it seems the capacity of the
Lebanese resilience has reached a breaking limit.
Read the rest of the paper on this link
The Beirut Enterprise represents a precious Agora to freely study and publish my works on political science, human rights, international justice and public policies, with a particular focus on the Levant region. The Beirut Enterprise believes in an academic and non partisan approach to understand and analyze regional and international geopolitics, along with political economics and policy insights.
Working conditions, minimum standards and employer-provided protections in Lebanon
Case study research into Lebanese and non-Lebanese informal workers in the food and beverage industry in central Bekaa, Minieh and Akkar
Author: Dr. Karim El Mufti
31 August 2018
Summary:
Many studies have investigated the crisis in livelihood, a crucial factor for the well being and dignity of displaced and refugee populations, and the lack of legal protection to which Syrian workers are subjected, especially in light of Lebanon’s crisis response plan.
This research intends to shed light on another angle to this issue, by focusing on protection-related questions within the food and beverage (F&B) industry, an increasingly informal sector due to worsening socio-economic conditions. According to the International Labor Organization, informality in the labour market is defined, “among other things, by the absence of explicit and registered work contracts and/or the absence of social security coverage for workers on the job".
The geographic scope of this research is the Bekaa and Akkar, economically underdeveloped regions that host the two largest Syrian settlements in Lebanon at 35.7% and 25.8% respectively. The study examines the employer’s role in the protection of vulnerable workers, whether Lebanese or Syrian, and relies on data collected from a survey in those two areas.
The survey encompasses 200 interviews with employees within the F&B sector (102 from Akkar and 98 from the Bekaa) generating information on the respondents’ formal status, working conditions and potential grievances. The study also relies on focus groups with local business employers in both areas.
Full study available in pdf here
Clinical Legal Education in Lebanon
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Since the establishment of Legal Clinics in Lebanon has been relying
primarily on international support and funding, this aspect is often seen as an
obstacle for the setting up of Legal Clinics that requires a certain number of
fundamental investments to function properly. The four acting Legal Clinics
have each dealt with the sustainability challenge in its own fashion and in
line with its own objectives and model. As such, the strong engagement of the believers
of CLE in Lebanese faculties has fostered new avenues for modern teaching
methods of legal disciplines in the country. At the same time, all four active Legal
Clinics have contributed in enhancing legal aid services to targeted
underprivileged audiences, either directly such as the USJ and the BAU
structures, or indirectly through the USEK and ULS models.
LA SAGESSE UNIVERSITY
Support to Legal Aid in Lebanon
Clinical
Legal Education in Lebanon, Models and Practices
Karim El Mufti
July 2017
Executive summary
The word
‘Clinic’ comes from the medical universe, where interns learn from observing
acting doctors and can be given a certain range of responsibilities in order to
learn how to deal with certain issues and problems in society. From the United
States, the legal clinical models have spread to what is known in the Clinic
education literature as the “Global North”, i.e. Western Europe and Australia
in the 1960’s and 1970’s. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe
started integrating this form of legal education within its law faculties
before it also reached the “Global South”, among which the Middle East and
North Africa region (MENA) at the beginning of the 21st Century.
Among
Clinical Legal Education (CLE) defenders lies a common understanding that
traditional teaching methods of the law were inoperative given the lack of
preparedness graduates would face when embracing lawyering carriers. As such,
problem-solving of legal mazes and tangled situations is among the core
pedagogical goals sought by Legal Clinics in all its variance of models and
structures, be it in-house or externship or hybrid types of CLE. Connecting
students to concrete situations hence enables them to burst their personal
protective bubbles and exit their family and social cocoons in order to engage
local communities, understand societal issues and problems and become defenders
of social justice and public service.
In the
MENA region, Lebanon has followed the tracks of countries like Palestine, Egypt
and Jordan in incorporating CLE as of 2007 to reform its traditional and rigid
teaching curricula. Among its seven law faculties in seven different
universities, Lebanon has experienced the emergence of four different types of
Legal Clinics, in the University of Holy Spirit of Kaslik (USEK) as of 2007, in
La Sagesse University (ULS) as of 2007, in the Saint-Joseph University in 2011
and within the Beirut Arab University as of 2012. Each of these unique configurations within the
Lebanese legal education system has enableed students to “learn by doing” and
built a significant legal professional experience ahead of graduating from Law
School, that has developed into an important element of the Law Faculties’ motto
and teaching goals.
From the existing Legal
Clinics in the Lebanese Law Faculties, two have incorporated the concept as a
full course, whether mandatory like in ULS HRLC or an elective like in USEK
Legal Clinic. These Clinics can rely on a well established and deeply rooted
civil society, whether they run under an in-house or externship models, which
allows for a greater involvement of students in legal aid activity with the
relevant stakeholders and a direct access to the persons seeking justice,
generally coming from underprivileged communities.
Read the full study here
Not Without Dignity: Views of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon on Displacement, Conditions of Return, and Coexistence
A Study for the International Center for Transitional Justice:
Discussions about a future return of refugees and coexistence among groups currently at war in Syria must begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement. This report, based on interviews with refugees, makes it clear that the restoration of dignity will be important to creating the necessary conditions for return and peaceful coexistence — and building a stable post-war Syria one day.
Download the full report in English here.
Download the executive summary in Arabic here.
June 12th, 2017
Armed conflict in Syria has displaced millions of people inside and outside of the country. When a political settlement to the conflict is eventually reached, the process of refugees returning to Syria and rebuilding their lives, relationships, and communities will be long and complex. However, discussions with displaced persons about return and coexistence can begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement.
This research report is based on interviews with refugees living in Lebanon and representatives of local and international organizations in both Lebanon and Turkey working on issues related to Syrian displacement. The report provides an important window into the experiences of refugees in Lebanon as well as their concerns, expectations, and priorities regarding conditions of return and coexistence.
The research findings highlight the harms experienced by Syrian refugees at both the individual and collective levels, including the loss of loved ones, houses, property, and businesses in Syria and difficult economic situations and discrimination in Lebanon. Displacement has had devastating impacts on families and led to broad social fragmentation, including sectarian and political divisions and rifts between those who left Syria and those who remained. The effects of conflict and displacement will be generational, as refugee children have been traumatized by their exposure to violence and largely deprived of education.
The findings also capture common priorities among Syrian refugees in Lebanon for return. Most do want to return, not just to Syria but to the regions and communities where they previously lived. Common preconditions for return include safety and security; shelter, livelihoods, and the physical reconstruction of homes and infrastructure; compensation or restitution for the loss of property and housing; the provision of education for children and youth; psychosocial support; and family reunification.
One positive development among refugees in Lebanon is that many youth engaged with local and international civil society organizations have acquired new skills and an openness to people with different religious and political beliefs that one day may contribute to rebuilding relationships in Syria.
Views about the potential for coexistence and justice vary widely. Some refugees believe that Syrians will be ready to rebuild ties once the conflict ends, while others are less optimistic. Some believe that justice is necessary for return, while others think it unlikely to occur. The research makes it clear that the restoration of dignity will play an important role in establishing the necessary conditions for refugee return and coexistence.
While return will ultimately depend on a political resolution to the Syrian conflict, several steps can be taken now that are likely to have implications for return and coexistence in the future. These include:
Discussions about a future return of refugees and coexistence among groups currently at war in Syria must begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement. This report, based on interviews with refugees, makes it clear that the restoration of dignity will be important to creating the necessary conditions for return and peaceful coexistence — and building a stable post-war Syria one day.
Download the full report in English here.
Download the executive summary in Arabic here.
June 12th, 2017
Armed conflict in Syria has displaced millions of people inside and outside of the country. When a political settlement to the conflict is eventually reached, the process of refugees returning to Syria and rebuilding their lives, relationships, and communities will be long and complex. However, discussions with displaced persons about return and coexistence can begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement.
This research report is based on interviews with refugees living in Lebanon and representatives of local and international organizations in both Lebanon and Turkey working on issues related to Syrian displacement. The report provides an important window into the experiences of refugees in Lebanon as well as their concerns, expectations, and priorities regarding conditions of return and coexistence.
The research findings highlight the harms experienced by Syrian refugees at both the individual and collective levels, including the loss of loved ones, houses, property, and businesses in Syria and difficult economic situations and discrimination in Lebanon. Displacement has had devastating impacts on families and led to broad social fragmentation, including sectarian and political divisions and rifts between those who left Syria and those who remained. The effects of conflict and displacement will be generational, as refugee children have been traumatized by their exposure to violence and largely deprived of education.
The findings also capture common priorities among Syrian refugees in Lebanon for return. Most do want to return, not just to Syria but to the regions and communities where they previously lived. Common preconditions for return include safety and security; shelter, livelihoods, and the physical reconstruction of homes and infrastructure; compensation or restitution for the loss of property and housing; the provision of education for children and youth; psychosocial support; and family reunification.
One positive development among refugees in Lebanon is that many youth engaged with local and international civil society organizations have acquired new skills and an openness to people with different religious and political beliefs that one day may contribute to rebuilding relationships in Syria.
Views about the potential for coexistence and justice vary widely. Some refugees believe that Syrians will be ready to rebuild ties once the conflict ends, while others are less optimistic. Some believe that justice is necessary for return, while others think it unlikely to occur. The research makes it clear that the restoration of dignity will play an important role in establishing the necessary conditions for refugee return and coexistence.
While return will ultimately depend on a political resolution to the Syrian conflict, several steps can be taken now that are likely to have implications for return and coexistence in the future. These include:
- Integrate the views of refugees into discussions and policies about conditions of return, as participatory processes are more likely to lead to context-specific interventions.
- Support community-level interventions, like the provision of psychosocial support, that can be implemented now and may facilitate return and coexistence in the future.
- Address sexual and gender-based violence, women’s exploitation, and child marriage by empowering women, educating young girls, and raising awareness of such abuses among families.
- Provide educational support to minimize the risk of the next generation being characterized by missed schooling, trauma, and violence.
- Integrate property and land restitution into discussions of displacement settlement processes in the interest of future social cohesion.
- Promote interaction between different groups and communities to reduce and prevent further sectarian and political divisions.
- Support further research on Syrian refugee experiences and views on return and coexistence in countries such as Turkey and Jordan as well as in Europe.
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