Conflict Incident Report

Hundreds of disabled persons and activists gathered Thursday near the presidential palace in Baabda to protest a potential 20 percent cut to the Social Affairs Ministry’s 2018 budget.

The protesters were bussed to the area from across Lebanon by the National Federation for Persons with Disabilities, which represents some 100 groups dedicated to fighting for disabled rights.

The Social Affairs Ministry directly funds many of these institutions, and indirectly supports others. A proposed 20 percent slash to the budgets of all ministries, government agencies and public institutions was ordered by Prime Minister Saad Hariri last month in order to curb Lebanon’s fiscal deficit.

Prior to Hariri’s order, groups had been calling for the Social Affairs Ministry’s budget to instead be raised to deal with nationwide demands. The ministry’s 2017 budget was roughly $150 million.

Social Affairs Minister Pierre Bou Assi attended the protest Thursday, telling reporters he would advocate for the ministry’s budget to at least be maintained at its 2017 level.

“At today’s session of the [ministerial committee tasked with studying the 2018 budget] I will put my heart on the table ... I will try to convince my colleagues that we cannot reduce this ministry’s budget due to [public] requirements, be it to help the poor, orphans [or] the disabled,” he said.

“We’re talking about doing something that could cause a lot of harm,” the minister added, in reference to the cuts.