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In September 2008, ALEF-act for human rights (The Association Libanaise pour l’Education et la Formation) launched an international lobbying campaign at the European Union (EU) & United Nations (UN) institutions in order to push the Lebanese state to ratify the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture (OpCAT). ALEF conducted eighteen (18) meetings within a period of two weeks prior to a visit by Lebanese representatives. These meetings leveraged international concern and served to influence the Lebanese state representatives and the respective Lebanese institutions and resulted in the Lebanese state ratifying the OpCAT.

The Lebanese context is characterized by widespread ill treatment and regular torture practices. In collaboration with other Lebanese civil society organizations, ALEF conducted capacity building workshops, raising awareness activities, and community mobilization actions on the local level aiming at triggering an interest in the subject of torture prevention at the public and state level. This helped to set the stage and support ALEF’s preparations for implementing the international lobbying campaign.

On a parallel track, ALEF started by drawing a preliminary list of the potential stakeholders interested in the area of torture and working on the Lebanese file at the EU & UN levels. In December 2007 ALEF solicited the input of one of its partners in Europe, the IKV Pax Christi organization (an expert in the area of European institutions). Representatives of IKV Pax Christi were invited to ALEF’s premises in Beirut, Lebanon for a three day planning meeting during which a presentation about the functioning of European institutions was made. As a result, a list of potential stakeholders was set, and a roadmap created to help establish meetings with those stakeholders. In addition, a list of potential UN officials was set through the contacts of ALEF with the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in Beirut – Lebanon.

After having set the lists of stakeholders to meet, additional efforts were deployed with the objective to detect the adequate timing for conducting the visits to Bruxelles, Belgium regarding the EU contacts and Geneva, Switzerland for the UN contacts where these respective institutions are located. Through field research, ALEF was able to know that a Lebanese delegation was set to conduct meetings with the EU in September 2007 in Bruxelles as a follow up on the country’s agreements under the European Neighborhood Policy framework. Based on that information, ALEF started to contact the different parliamentarians and commissioners in order to fix meetings prior to the Lebanese state delegation visit to Europe.

The main obstacle ALEF encountered was the unstable political situation in Lebanon. On two occasions ALEF was obliged to change the period of the campaign due to the security and political situation in Lebanon. On another level, it was not easy to arrange meetings with some high level stakeholders at the European level due to their tight schedules. It was highly important for ALEF to have a partner based on site, in Bruxelles and Geneva to provide the follow up on a daily basis in preparation of ALEF’s visit.

ALEF was able to conduct a total of eighteen (18) meetings in Bruxelles and Geneva with several stakeholders conveying specific recommendations related to the policies the Lebanese state should adopt in order to prevent torture, and more particularly the importance for Lebanon to ratify the OpCAT.

As a result, the Lebanese state officially ratified the OpCAT on the 22nd of December 2008, after depositing its ratification document at the UN in Geneva. It is important to mention that the ratification by Lebanon of the OpCAT was the result of collective work done by the Lebanese civil society organizations. However, the international lobbying campaign led by ALEF was considered crucial at that level and juncture of the process.

ALEF’s core mandate is monitoring and advocating for human rights in Lebanon. Advocacy is a vital cross cutting function among its various programs: Child rights, Education and Outreach and other projects under Monitoring and Advocacy (including: death penalty, torture prevention and monitoring, arbitrary detention and the universal periodic review). Furthermore, ALEF heavily focuses on the role of youth in strengthening the human rights in Lebanon and thus seeks to enhance their skills and knowledge for this purpose.

Photo source: ALEF website