Draft Law: for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons

The Draft Law for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons was the result of a joint collaboration since 2010 between the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and a network of NGOs including the Committee of Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon (CFKDL), Support of the Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE), Legal Agenda and other lawyers and public officials. ICTJ and Friedrich Ebert Foundation organized a trip to Bosnia for a delegation of the civil society, including families of the disappeared in Lebanon, SOLIDE, lawyers, judges and two Members of the parliament (MPs), to see the work of the Institute of the Missing. Subsequently, ICTJ worked with CFKDL, SOLIDE and lawyer Nizar Saghiyeh to produce a draft law intended to find a legal framework to address the issue of the disappeared. The draft was produced and submitted to the parliament in April 2014 through two MPs. The project also led to the publication of a strategic litigation report on the issue of disappearance by lawyer Nizar Saghiyeh. The Report "The Missing in Lebanon Inputs on the Establishment of the Independent National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared in Lebanon" published in January 2016 provides expert financial and operational analysis and information to help facilitate the establishment of an Independent National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared in Lebanon, as envisaged in a draft consolidated bill now before the Lebanese Parliament. The study is firmly based on the Lebanese context.