مرسوم-السلامة ا-عامة

Public Safety Decree: No Guarantee for People’s Safety, and No End to the Deterioration of the Urban Environment

Decree No. 14293 relating to “Requirements for General Safety in Buildings, Facilities and Elevator Equipment, and Fire and Earthquake Prevention”.

It was amended by Decree No. 7964, which is currently in force and issued on April 7, 2012.

It was issued in the Official gazette on March 11, 2005

Decree No. 14293/2005 was issued following the state’s failure, for the period of eight years, to implement three other decrees that safeguard public safety in construction. However, several obstacles prevented its full implementation, and an amendment was issued, bearing the number 7964/2012, the issuing of which was accelerated by the collapse of the Fassouh building in Ashrafieh. The decree and its amendment specify the public safety requirements that must be applied in buildings and facilities to protect them from the dangers of fire, earthquakes, and elevator equipment. The issuance of the decree and its amendment incited progress in the field of securing public safety in buildings and facilities, but it remains an incomplete step in both its content and implementation, in terms of not considering the case of buildings constructed before the date of issuance, and therefore, leaving thousands of old buildings and historical neighborhoods without a mechanism that ensures safety, or in terms of relying on the building law that keeps maintenance and restoration responsibilities vague, and endorses demolition and displacement policies. The decree and its amendment were also part of a broader legislative and political framework that led to the deterioration of buildings and the urban environment in Lebanon, through problematic urban planning and dangerous measures taken by the state for decades – such as the Murr floor and circulars of the Ministry of Interior. This, along with the historical absence of adequate housing options needed by marginalized communities, drove people to live on floors that were gradually added on top of existing buildings, without studying their structural integrity, which exposes residents to continuous threat.

Lebanon