Statement

Securing the Right to Housing and Return: An Open Letter to Officials on Tripoli’s Building Collapse Crisis

As Tripoli’s building collapse crisis deepens. This letter calls on public officials to ensure that the government’s Emergency Plan measures protect residents from long-term displacement through dignified alternative housing and guaranteed return.

Law Commentary

The Suspension of Deadlines in the Absence of Housing Protection: A Legislative Loophole in Times of War

The suspension of deadlines in times of war is a key tool for protecting rights. However, excluding lease agreements from it undermines this protection and exposes tenants to the risk of eviction and homelessness. In the context of widespread displacement and declining ability to pay, the right to housing cannot be separated from any serious legislative response to the crisis. Including leases within the scope of suspended deadlines is not a technical detail, but an urgent necessity to ensure a minimum level of social protection under exceptional circumstances.

Research-Based Article

Kfarkela, Southern Lebanon: Stories of the Land and Its People Facing Erasure

بلدة كفركلا هي بلدة جنوبية حدودية تشتهر بأراضيها الخصبة وأشجار الزيتون، إضافةً إلى علاقاتها التاريخية مع القرى الفلسطينية المجاورة قبل فرض الحدود الاستعمارية الحديثة. واجهت البلدة والقرى الحدودية في جنوب لبنان اعتداءات إسرائيلية منتظمة منذ عام 1948. ومع بدء الحرب الإسرائيلية على لبنان في 8 تشرين الأول 2023، تعرضت هذه القرى لإبادة بيئية ومكانية شملت القصف والتفجير والحرق واستخدام الفوسفور الأبيض، إضافةً إلى إعاقة العودة وإعادة الإعمار. ورغم غياب الدعم الرسمي، يبادر السكان عبر جهود جماعية ومبادرات محلية للحفاظ على صمودهم وعلاقتهم بالأرض واستمرارية الحياة فيها.

Research-Based Article

Eviction in Wartime: A Reading of Old Rent Eviction Verdicts

This article explores how courts in Beirut and Zahle selectively applied an inapplicable law to fast-track legally preventable evictions, while disregarding the consequences for old-rent tenants in a country already overwhelmed by war and displacement.

Publication

Responding to Ecocide in Lebanon: Recommendations for Official and Community Engagement in Sustainable Recovery

Since 8 October 2023, following the Israeli war on Lebanon and the ongoing ceasefire violations, the southern regions have endured widespread attacks on homes, infrastructure, public facilities, cultural landmarks, forests, and agricultural lands. …

Project

Responding to Ecocide in Lebanon: Recommendations for Official and Community Engagement in Sustainable Recovery

Since 8 October 2023, border villages in southern Lebanon have suffered systematic ecocide, with Israel targeting infrastructure, forests, and agricultural lands, aimed at enforcing displacement and making the area uninhabitable. Over the past year, Public Works Studio conducted research, monitoring, and workshops, focusing particularly on the town of Kfarkela as a case study, to analyze damages and identify priorities for return, reconstruction, and environmental recovery. This work culminated in a policy paper documenting the impacts, evaluating recovery frameworks, and offering recommendations to advance environmental justice. The paper was launched during a public seminar to foster discussion on participatory advocacy pathways.

Statement

Open the Empty Buildings – Public and Private- and Apply Rent Control

Thousands of displaced families are sleeping on the Corniche sidewalks, the beach, and in public squares, left without shelter. This situation is a direct result of the government’s shortcomings in its plan to accommodate the growing number of displaced people, exacerbated by Israel’s orders to evacuate more than 80 towns in the south and all of southern Beirut.

We are here to reiterate the following options for effectively responding to the escalating displacement crisis, in light of the evolving security situation and the imperative to guarantee the right to housing, which is being violated on an unprecedented scale during wars.

Law Commentary

Two Complementary Draft Laws to Strengthen the Right to Housing

On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, MP Halima Al-Qaqour, along with a number of MPs, submitted two draft laws to the Speaker of Parliament. The first, an amendment to the old residential lease law, …

مقال

القعقور ونواب يتقدّمون باقتراحَي قانون لتعديل قانونَي الإيجارات القديمة والجديدة

تقدّمت النائبة حليمة القعقور، يوم الأربعاء ٢٥ شباط ٢٠٢٦، باقتراحَي قانون إلى رئاسة مجلس النواب، الأول معجّل مكرّر لتعديل قانون الإيجارات السكنية القديمة والثاني لتنظيم عقود الإيجار، في خطوة طارئة بالتعاون مع «استديو …

Project

Public Works Studio Selected to Manage the Second Edition of the Research Innovation Fund

Public Works Studio has been selected by the Arab Land Initiative to manage its second edition of the Research Innovation Fund that aims to expand knowledge, data, and critical research on land-related issues …

Research-Based Article

Is there anything left to say about Hayy el Tanak?

This article looks at Hayy el Tanak in Tripoli, not as an example or proof of randomness or disorganization, but rather as a question about the meaning of a neighborhood; for the neighborhood is not a product of chance or an architectural sin. It is, in fact, a testament to the architecture of exclusion.

Activity

Responding to Ecocide in Lebanon: 

Recommendations for Official and Community Engagement in Sustainable Recovery

Public Works Studio and the Arab Reform Initiative are organizing the launch event of their joint research paper, “Responding to Ecocide in Lebanon: Recommendations for Official and Community Engagement in Sustainable Recovery,” on …