ACGEN: Active Citizenship and Gendered Social Entitlements Event Spotlights
Thu, 29 Sep, 2016
For a long time now, the Lebanese government has followed a policy of building up internal and external public debt, while attempting to deal with its chronic political and economic crisis, thus resulting in a soaring level of indebtedness that has reached USD71.5 billion as per the figures in May 2016. It is worth saying that the current size of debt largely exceeds that of GDP which was estimated at USD 47 billion in 2016 and that is according to the World Bank.
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Wed, 3 Aug, 2016
In the previous editorial, we discussed the current toing and froing regarding the electoral system (whether to adopt the proportional or the majority system). We will now address the issue of electoral circumscriptions, another key aspect of the current political debate.
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Fri, 24 Jun, 2016
The current Parliament has been discussing, in vain, the reform of the electoral law for the past four years, amidst repeated demands for the adoption of the proportional electoral system to replace the current majority system. In this process opposing political groups continue to quarrel over the matter, each camp trying to tailor the new legislation according to its own interests, and so as to enable it to control the new parliament.
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Thu, 19 May, 2016
With the imminent approach of local municipal elections, tensions between political forces are high, as they maneuver for domination of local councils. These heightened tensions are taking place against the background of the failure of the current government in addressing key problems of ensuring public services and settling the present national political stalemate (namely the carrying out of the presidential and parliamentary elections, the adoption of a more representative electoral law, the management...
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Wed, 13 Apr, 2016
The attitude of the Lebanese government vis-à-vis the Syrian displacement is largely characterized by deception, contradiction and lack of transparency.
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Tue, 23 Feb, 2016
UNRWA continues to steadily shrink its educational, health and in-kind services, in parallel with the international drive to write off the Palestinian cause which was already given up by most Arab and Palestinian political forces. In justifying the recent cuts in services, UNRWA once more invokes financial difficulties, resulting from the drop in international funding, while reflecting clear insensitiveness towards the social and humanitarian hardships of refugees caused by these cuts.
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Tue, 26 Jan, 2016
The paralysis that has hit state institutions in Lebanon, namely the presidency, the Cabinet and the House, has extended to reach other institutions namely the Civil Service Council which is a public outfit granted with wide prerogatives principally the appointment of civil servants. As a result of creeping confessionalisation within civil service which started back in the nineties, seemingly “civil” but in fact confessional outfits have emerged to overtake the role of the Council which in turn...
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Wed, 30 Dec, 2015
Twelve years after the submission of the law proposal to reinstate Lebanese nationality to immigrants, and four years after its endorsement by the Cabinet during the mandate of former President Michel Suleiman, the House finally approved it during its session on 12/11/2015 after it was placed on the House discussion agenda following intense negotiations and following its endorsement by the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement MPs.
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Mon, 30 Nov, 2015
Four months after the onset of the waste management crisis and the failure of various band aid solutions put forward in providing appropriate health and environmental solution, the latest plan submitted by Minister Akram Chehayeb appears to be still pending as it awaits confessional political compromise on new dumpsites, a matter which was met with a wide local popular opposition.
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Mon, 12 Oct, 2015
The latest civil and popular movement which recently erupted in protest to the garbage crisis, and which later expanded to include new slogans such as challenging corruption as well as the call for the downfall of the confessional system, succeeded indeed in rattling the political landscape already in crisis, and in upsetting the traditional political actors, who have been unable to guarantee the basic rights of citizens.
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