Lebanon’s 128-seat parliament voted by a majority to remove the death penalty from national law, advancing legislation that would make the country the first in the Middle East to formally abolish capital punishment. Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc opposed the measure.
The vote did not complete enactment. The bill was due to go before the cabinet and then President Joseph Aoun for signature. The government had already expressed support, making final approval likely but not legally complete on the event date.
Under the proposal, offences previously punishable by death would instead bring life imprisonment with hard labour. The legislation did not define how that labour would operate. Although the concept already exists in Lebanese law, it has rarely been applied in recent years amid an economic crisis, prison overcrowding and limited state resources.
Lebanon last executed a prisoner in January 2004. Death sentences continued to be imposed afterward, but carrying one out could proceed only after separate approval from Lebanon’s president, its premier and the justice minister. No such decree had received all three signatures for more than two decades, creating a de facto moratorium.
Rights groups estimated that over 78 people remained under death sentences. Capital punishment had been available for aggravated murder, some fatal terrorism offences, treason, espionage and crimes against state security. The bill raised practical questions about how existing sentences would be converted if it became law.
The vote followed nearly 30 years of campaigning led by lawyers and civil-society organisations. Oragit Younan helped establish a Lebanese civil-rights association, argued that state killing could not remedy violence. She presented the vote during wartime as evidence that human-rights reform remained possible even amid daily insecurity.
Earlier abolition proposals failed, including a parliamentary initiative in 2004 and a Justice Ministry plan in 2008. The 2026 majority therefore represented a significant political change, though opposition from Hezbollah showed that consensus was not universal.
Lebanon’s direction also contrasted with developments elsewhere in the region. Jordan resumed executions in June, Israel expanded circumstances for capital punishment, and the UN human-rights chief raised alarm over increasing executions in Iran. If cabinet and presidential approval followed, Lebanon would move from a long moratorium to abolition in law. The remaining test would be implementing replacement sentences in an already strained prison system.
Abolition would also require officials to clarify conditions for life sentences and review prisoners already condemned. Without implementing rules, replacing one punishment with another could leave uncertainty about labour requirements, parole prospects and consistency among courts. Cabinet review remained the next formal stage.
