Lebanon Votes to Abolish Death Penalty, First in Middle East

Key Takeaways

• The Lebanese parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, a move that would make Lebanon the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment.
• The legislation, which replaces capital punishment with life imprisonment with hard labour, still needs to be approved by the cabinet and President Joseph Aoun.
• Human rights groups estimate that over 78 people remain on death row in Lebanon, although no executions have been carried out since 2004.
• The move comes as the use of the death penalty remains contested in other Middle Eastern countries, with some countries increasing their use of capital punishment.

Lebanon's parliament has taken a significant step towards ending capital punishment, voting in favour of a bill that would abolish the death penalty. The legislation, which still needs to be approved by the cabinet and President Joseph Aoun, would make Lebanon the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment.

While the bill would replace capital punishment with life imprisonment with hard labour, human rights groups have expressed concerns that the new sentence could be used to punish certain groups, particularly those from marginalized communities. The legislation does not yet set out in detail how the new sentence would be enforced, leaving uncertainty over how it would be implemented in practice.