GRAFFITI LETTER A FREE

On September 29, 2018, General Security forces raided and unlawfully attempted to shut down an annual conference that advances LGBTI rights and issued entry bans for the non-Lebanese participants. Since 2017, Lebanese security forces have regularly interfered with human rights events related to gender and sexuality. The interior ministry’s decision comes at a time when more than 80 percent of the country’s residents do not have access to basic rights, including health, education, and an adequate standard of living, according to the United Nations.

The security forces’ reasoning contravenes international guidance on freedom of assembly under human rights law, which excludes notification requirements where the impact of the gathering can be expected to be minimal, which would be the case for a small workshop held in private. However, that law only applies to public meetings. Since then, activists said, they have received repeated calls from the Internal Security’s information branch inviting them “for a chat over coffee,” which the activists declined, and indicating that they were monitoring the activists’ social media accounts.Īctivists said the security forces attempted to justify their interference by claiming that the organizers “failed to obtain prior approval from the authorities,” citing the 1911 Lebanese Law on Public Meetings.

The same day the ministry sent its letter, officers from General Security, Internal Security, and the Internal Security’s information branch questioned both LGBTI and feminist activists at a cultural center about a planned private seven-person workshop, telling them to cancel the event or apply for a permit. Several parliament members also made statements condemning the “promotion of homosexuality.” Activists who had planned and publicly announced a peaceful march on June 26 against the ban said they indefinitely postponed the protest due to threats of violent counter-protests and fears that the security forces would not protect them. “The ban tells LGBTI people that the government is willing to throw away their fundamental rights if others want them to.”Ī wave of anti-LGBTI hate speech on social media by individuals and some religious groups, followed the ministry’s letter, including incitement to violence, death threats, and calls to ban the scheduled events by force. “The Interior Ministry’s unlawful decision to ban events promoting LGBTI rights alarmingly indicates the deterioration of human rights and freedoms in Lebanon,” said Tarek Zeidan, executive director of Helem. On June 24, 2022, Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi sent an urgent letter to the directorates of Internal Security and General Security instructing them to ban any gatherings aimed at “promoting sexual perversion.” The letter includes vague and overly broad grounds, citing no legal basis, to determine that such gatherings violate “customs and traditions” and “principles of religion.” The interior minister said this decision was in response to calls to his ministry from religious groups to “reject the spread of this phenomenon.” The letter is understood to refer to gatherings by LGBTI groups, citing a message circulated on social media that detailed plans for activities organized by LGBTI activists.

GRAFFITI LETTER A FREE

The ban violates LGBTI people’s constitutional rights to equality, free expression, and free assembly and Lebanon’s obligations under international law and comes during an economic crisis and a worsening climate for the rights of LGBTI people in the country.

(Beirut) – Lebanese authorities have unlawfully banned peaceful gatherings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, the Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanon said today. © 2020 Marwan Tahtah for Human Rights Watch LGBTQ Rights graffiti spray-painted at a protest site in downtown Beirut.

Graffiti letter a