The destructive actions of Lebanon\u2019s political and financial leaders are responsible for forcing most of the country\u2019s population into poverty, in violation of international human rights law, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, said in a report published today.<\/P>
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The report follows a country visit to Lebanon and an investigation into the root causes and impacts of the country\u2019s worst economic and financial crisis in history.<\/P>
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\u201cImpunity, corruption, and structural inequality have been baked into a venal political and economic system designed to fail those at the bottom, but it doesn\u2019t have to be that way,\u201d said De Schutter, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.<\/P>
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\u201cThe political establishment knew about the looming cataclysm for years but did little to avert it. Well-connected individuals even moved their money out of the country, facilitated by a legal vacuum that allowed capital to flow out of the country. Truth and accountability must be sought as a matter of human rights.\u201d<\/P>
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With parliamentary elections on 15 May, the UN expert called on the next government to place accountability and transparency at the \u201cheart and centre of its actions,\u201d starting with publicly disclosing its own finances and conflicts of interest and demanding that Central Bank officials do the same.<\/P>
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Lebanon\u2019s man-made economic crisis started in 2019, and today the country stands as \u201ca failing State\u201d, the UN expert said. He cited current estimates that put four in every five people in poverty.<\/P>
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\u201cPolitical connections with the banking system are pervasive, pointing at serious concerns about conflicts of interest in their handling of the economy and people\u2019s savings,\u201d De Schutter said.<\/P>
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\u201cThere is no accountability built into the latest rescue plan, critical to restoring the lost confidence of the population and the financial sector. We\u2019re talking about national wealth that belongs to the public in Lebanon and that was squandered over decades of mismanagement and misplaced investments by the Government and the Central Bank.<\/P>
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\u201cCentral Bank policies, in particular, led to a downward spiral of the currency, the devastation of the economy, the wiping out of people\u2019s lifetime savings and to plunging the population into poverty. The conclusion of my report is that the Central Bank has brought the Lebanese State into clear contravention of international human rights law.<\/P>
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\u201cPolitical leadership is completely out of touch with reality, including with the desperation they\u2019ve created by destroying people\u2019s lives. Lebanon is also one of the most unequal countries in the world, yet leadership seems unaware of this at best, and comfortable with it at worst.\u201d<\/P>
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De Schutter said there was a serious lack of robust social protection mechanisms. \u201cAs it currently stands, it is a system that protects the rich while leaving poor families to fend for themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cPublic services, including electricity, education, and healthcare, have been gutted, with a State that heavily subsidises private provisioning of these services. Over a quarter of all public education expenditures go to the private sector, which exacerbates inequality, does not lead to better education, and leads to higher dropouts among children from poor households.<\/P>
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\u201cMore than half of families report that their child has had to skip meals, and hundreds of thousands of children are out of school,\u201d he added. \u201cIf the situation does not improve immediately, an entire generation of children will be sacrificed.\u201d<\/P>
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The UN expert criticised decades of underinvestment in the public healthcare system and the Government\u2019s \u201cdisgraceful\u201d partial removal of subsidies on essential medicines. \u201cMedicines remain in severe shortage and prices for chronic disease medication have increased at least fourfold, an all but guaranteed death sentence for those most in need,\u201d the UN poverty expert said.<\/P>
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Despite the dearth of official poverty data \u2013 which the Government does not systematically collect, in part owing to the lack of census since 1932 \u2013 estimates suggest that multidimensional poverty nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021, affecting 82 percent of the population last year.<\/P>
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The UN report finds Palestinian and Syrian refugees face disastrous living conditions in Lebanon, with 88 percent living under minimum survival conditions. Almost half of Syrian families are food insecure. \u201cThe horrendous plight of refugees is a direct result of the administrative and legal measures imposed by the State, which continues to sideline and blame them for its own failure to provide basic goods and services to the population, whether education, decent jobs, safe drinking water or electricity,\u201d he said.<\/P>
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\u201cIf trust for a better future is to be restored, the Government must strengthen the Central Inspection, free the National Anti-Corruption Commission from potential political interference, ensure independent oversight of \u00c9lectricit\u00e9 du Liban, and ingrain accountability and transparency into the recovery plan.\u201d<\/P>
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The UN expert called on the incoming government to commit to improving its human rights record in all spheres by reducing inequality, fighting corruption and impunity, building strong and resilient social protection, education, and healthcare systems, and placing the interests of the public above private profits.<\/P>
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Source: National News Agency – Lebanon<\/P>
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