Public Works

Project

A Comprehensive Law for the Right to Housing in Lebanon

In 2023, Public Works Studio launched a project for a comprehensive draft law for the right to housing in Lebanon. The project is a radical approach to addressing the housing crisis and its accumulations over the past decades, and is proposed as a tool capable of securing the diverse needs of a variety of social groups, especially the elderly, persons with disability, students, workers, families, and others. The project is rooted in a participatory methodology, and throughout its phases engaged in consultations with residents from marginalized communities, civil society institutions, and experts, whose ownership of the proposal is a pillar for the project’s success.

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.

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 …

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 …

Project

Investigating Religious Land Endowments in Lebanon

Amid Lebanon’s economic crisis, religious authorities have been excluded from the discussion on sharing the losses, despite being among the largest landowners and benefiting from tax breaks. In this context, it was necessary to conduct an in-depth study of religious endowment lands (waqf), highlighting their social value, placing them at the center of the wider conversation on the economic collapse, as well as shedding light on the needed regulation and taxation, and making the related data accessible as a basis for any future advocacy.

Field Watch

The Collapse of the Rishani Building in Chouaifat Exposes the Failures of the Owner, Municipality, and the General Directorate for Urban Planning

Just about a week after the complete collapse of a building in Sahra Chouaifat, another tragedy struck on Monday, February 19, 2024. The Rishani building in the Ain neighbourhood of Chouaifat collapsed on …

Law Commentary

The 2024 budget:

Rewarding property owners and speculators

This article discusses the 2024 budget in Lebanon, emphasizing the lack of substantial changes to rebuild the collapsing economy. The budget focuses on providing legal cover for state expenses without addressing existing policies, …

Statement

Tear Down the Wall! Stop the Genocide in Gaza Now!

Housing Justice Network Statement on Palestine

Today we launch the Housing Justice Network in the MENA Region with a public denunciation of the atrocities committed by the state of Israel in Gaza and the wider region. As local housing …

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Project

Mobilisations during the October 17 Uprising to reclaim seafront public properties

Over the past decades, environmental issues and access to natural resources stood out as major components of the broader landscape of social mobilisation in Lebanon. Despite oppressive practices and the hegemony’s attempts to …

Activity

Public Works Studios launched the Land Policy Observatory:

Four Years of Accumulated Inequality

Public Works Studio invites you to the launch of the “Land Policy Observatory,” an online platform producing and making available knowledge about land issues in Lebanon. The observatory aims to promote just development …