Lebanon’s parliament voted on Tuesday to abolish the death penalty, a decision that would make the country the first in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment and one that caps nearly three decades of campaigning by civil society groups and lawyers who pressed successive governments to remove the sentence from Lebanese law. The legislation now goes to the cabinet before reaching President Joseph Aoun for signing, and the government has already expressed support.
A majority of MPs in the 128-seat parliament backed the measure, while Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc voted against it, according to the BBC. The speaker’s office said lawmakers signed off on the legislation after making several amendments, Al Jazeera reported. Justice Minister Adel Nassar, who was present in parliament for the vote, called the abolition a “historic step” for the country.
A long moratorium, now made permanent
Under the new legislation, capital punishment will be replaced with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour, though the law does not yet set out in detail how the new sentence would be enforced and some legislators said the terms of the punishment are not yet clear. Hard labour is already written into Lebanese law and court decisions, but even those provisions have been rarely enforced in recent years because the country’s financial crisis and overcrowded prisons have limited the authorities’ resources and capacity. Lebanon has not carried out an execution since January 2004. Courts have continued to hand down death sentences. Rights groups estimate that more than 78 people remain on death row, according to the BBC, while the Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Prisons put the number at 85 at the end of 2025, Al Jazeera reported. An execution required a decree signed by the president, the prime minister, and the justice minister, and no such decree has been signed since.
Under Lebanese law, the death penalty could previously be imposed for some of the country’s most serious offences, including aggravated murder, certain terrorism-related crimes resulting in death, treason, espionage, and offences against state security. Previous attempts to abolish the death penalty have failed, including legislation introduced in parliament in 2004 and a proposal from the justice ministry in 2008.
Years of campaigning
The vote follows years of campaigning. Oragit Younan, co-founder of the Lebanese Association for Civil Rights, led a nearly three-decade campaign to abolish the death penalty in Lebanon and told the BBC that the country can be a model for others. “We cannot solve a crime with a crime or end violence with violence,” she said. “We are in a war, and people [have been] killed every day, so even in this situation, we can fight, we can struggle for human rights, and we can win.” Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, praised Lebanon’s move as “a major milestone and a victory for human rights,” saying it transforms a precarious hiatus into lasting legal protection upholding the right to life. Morayef said the step brings Lebanon in line with the global trend towards abolition, Al Jazeera reported.
A contested practice across the region
Lebanon’s move comes as the use of the death penalty remains contested elsewhere in the Middle East. Jordan resumed executions in June, carrying out its first since 2017. In Israel, parliament approved legislation in May to impose the death penalty and conduct public trials for those involved in the Hamas-led attacks and mass hostage-taking of October 2023, expanding the circumstances for capital punishment. The UN human rights chief has said he is alarmed by the rise in executions in Iran, where at least 56 people had been executed on national security-related charges since 19 March, including 27 in cases linked to January’s nationwide anti-government protests, according to Volker Türk.
Lebanon’s parliament is also debating a controversial general amnesty law, the largest since the end of the country’s 15-year civil war in 1990, that could reduce sentences or release some people convicted of violent offences, Al Jazeera reported. Family members of Lebanese soldiers and servicemen killed in attacks have repeatedly protested against the amnesty law, with some saying they had hoped to see the perpetrators who killed their family members executed rather than receive reduced prison sentences.