Conflict Analysis Project

#BackToBasics #SocialJusticeGlossary

The social justice glossary introduces concepts related to social justice, protection, and social security from a rights based perspective. It contributes to shifting the narrative on social security and protection to a citizen and rights based discourse, and aims to set these issues on public and policy agendas.

This series was developed in partnership with Unicef, and was publiched on the CeSSRA's social media channels between May and June 2022.

Over the past years, civic space in Lebanon has been increasingly contained with oppressive measures, including restrictions on freedom of assembly, arrests, summonings, and interrogations of civil society actors and activists, as well as violent repression of demonstrations, among others. Based on our Mapping of Collective Actions in Lebanon, and looking at data between January 2021 and March 2022, 84 collective actions denounced the arbitrary arrests and summonings of activists, journalists, and artists.

The Proxy Means Test (PMT) is a targeting methodology that aims to predict a household's level of welfare and income using a statistical formula. This methodology is used by governments, financial and aid institutions to identify and target households who are eligible for social programmes and can receive assistance. Evidence indicates that PMTs do not effectively address their main purpose: ensuring that the poorest members of society can access social protection.

Civic space in Lebanon has been progressively shrinking over the past years, with scrutiny, censorship, and/or repression continuously and increasingly directed towards civil society actors, initiatives, and social movements. Worldwide, Covid-19 related lockdowns and state of emergency have contributed to the weakening of civic space. In Lebanon, this is further compounded, as the political establishment routinely resorts to demonising civil society, and imposes control and scrutiny over its activities.