ACHRS stands in solidarity with the protestors in Lebanon and their demands for government reform and encourages all demonstrations to remain peaceful

Press release

17/11/2019

The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies stands in solidarity with the protestors in Lebanon as they push for government reforms.

As the protests reach the one-month mark, ACHRS wants to acknowledge and support the rights and demands that many Lebanese citizens are making to the government. According to Lebanese protestors, bank secrecy laws allow politicians to cover up stealing billions of dollars from the Lebanese people and State. Therefore, after the government proposed yet another tax, anger against decades of corruption, high unemployment, hunger, and lack of medical care, education, transportation, electricity, trash services, erupted in the streets of Beirut. Protestors are standing up against this tax as Lebanon’s economy is stagnating and is in severe debt (around $85 billion). They are also standing for the removal of Lebanon’s corrupt ruling class and believe they should be brought to justice for their crimes, which have resulted in the collapsed of the Lebanese economy.     

Lebanese civil society has always played a profound role in shaping the future of the country, and ACHRS believes that these protests will have a large impact on making the Lebanese government more just. ACHRS encourages the demonstrations to remain peaceful. The Center discourages the blocking of roads, and any other forms of violence to achieve their demands. As was seen in Tunisia and Sudan, peaceful demonstrations achieve the most promising results. If protests become violent, it is unlikely that the people’s demands will be met and it is possible that Lebanon will enter a state of civil war.