discrimination

Enacting a law to extend rental contract deadlines: An insufficient measure to safeguard the right to housing

The Lebanese government’s new law suspends legal, judicial, and contractual deadlines to protect citizens’ rights during the Israeli aggression. However, concerns persist about its long-term effectiveness, especially regarding housing security and old rental tenants.

Under the Bombs: who supervises the work of NGOs working with the refugees?

Amid airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Walid and his family fled Nabatieh and entered a cycle of displacement. His story sheds light on systemic failures in addressing refugee needs by both the government and refugee aid organizations in time of war.

When the Emergency Plan Fails in Practice: A Critical Reading of Crisis Management

This report, produced after the ceasefire was announced, offers an evaluation and critique to the national emergency plan, highlighting its content flaws and execution failures based on field observations and the experiences of those impacted by the Israeli war.

The Right to the city and to housing during wars

It is not possible to imagine a war that would displace one fifth of the population, destroying the suburb of Beirut as well as the country’s southern and eastern region, bombing Lebanon’s entire …

Shelter Distribution Reflects Religious, Class, and Regional Factors

Lebanon’s national emergency plan for mass displacement relied on shelters in schools located in safer areas, but their uneven geographic distribution created challenges, with many host towns and regions suffering from overcrowding. The imbalance, exacerbating regional inequality and pressure on infrastructure, underscored the need to a more equitable distribution of shelters.

The blame game over shelter responsibilities is playing out in a car parking in Saida

For over a month, around 700 Syrian refugees displaced by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon have been living in a parking lot in Saida City. Stranded without alternatives, their situation remained unresolved until the property owner’s influence and the protection of private property rights prompted officials to take action—not to find a solution, but to evict them, leaving their fate uncertain.

 About Abd el Baqi building in Hamra:

squatting to reclaim the city’s social role

The right to the city is an application of the right to ​​access housing and city spaces, through the recognition of the importance of the space’s social role. Today, a number of displaced people are trying to apply the concepts of the right to the city and housing by taking possession of an abandoned building in Hamra. About a month ago, the owner of the building sent an eviction request to the public prosecutor. The eviction didn’t take place, but by narrating the threat and the building’s story, we hope to open a discussion about squatting, the priorities that drive such an issue, and the balance of power it reveals, especially since squatting has become a necessity and a reality during the war.

May school in Tripoli: A Model of the Syrian Housing Tragedy during War

The emergency plan approved by the Lebanese government in response to the recent Israeli war on Lebanon excluded non-Lebanese displaced persons, especially Syrian refugees, from relief and shelter centers. In this report, we review the situation in May Public School in Tripoli as an example of the tragedy of Syrian housing in the war to highlight the urgent need for comprehensive shelter policies and protection for all displaced communities.

Displaced Syrians, between an emergency plan that excludes them and the UNHCR that ignores them

In Saida, 145 displaced Syrian families are living in a parking lot due to their exclusion from the relief response outlined in Lebanon’s emergency plan, which prioritizes Lebanese citizens. Both the municipality and the UNHCR are refusing to carry the responsibility for their shelter, with the UNHCR advising refugees to seek shelter elsewhere, leaving many homeless. This piece calls for the UNHCR to fulfill its responsibility by either establishing shelters for displaced Syrians or advocating for non-discriminatory access to shelter with the Lebanese government.

Beirut Municipality removes the tents of the displaced in Ramlet el Bayda while using force and without securing alternatives

On Thursday October 31st, the security forces proceeded to remove the tents that were inhabited by more than seventy displaced persons in Ramlet al-Bayda, to transfer them to a new shelter in the Karantina area. However, these plans excluded non-Lebanese, causing them another displacement or homelessness.

Call regarding the Use of Public Spaces by Displaced Persons

The statement addresses the issue of displaced persons occupying public spaces due to the ongoing war and a rapid increase in displacement. In the initial phases, many displaced individuals sought refuge in open …

Kousba and the Beast:

The story of a municipality forcefully evicting Syrian refugees and preventing the Lebanese residents from protecting them

This narrative features Nermine, a 70 y.o lebanese woman, as she struggles to defend her tenants of 13 years, Fadi his wife and their child, from the municipality’s attempts to forcibly evict them …