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LIBRARY

MIDDLE
EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
MIDDLE
EAST
LEBANON

AI Index: MDE
18/010/2007

17
October 2007

Lebanon
Exiled and suffering: Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon

Glossary

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women

CERD Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

CESCR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child

FIDH Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de
I'Homme

ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICERD International Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination

ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights

LL Lebanese lira (LL 100,000 = US$67.54)

UNHCR UN High Commissioner for Refugees

UNRWA UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East

Note: Some of the names of people interviewed by Amnesty
International have been changed to conceal their identity.

1. introduction

"All 12 official refugee camps in [Lebanon]
suffer from serious problems - no proper infrastructure,
overcrowding, poverty and unemployment. [Lebanon] has the
highest percentage of Palestine refugees who are living in
abject poverty and who are registered with the Agency's
‘special hardship’ programme."

UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA), 2007(1)
Today, some 300,000 Palestinian
refugees reside in Lebanon and constitute nearly a tenth of
the country’s population.(2) Most are people and their
descendants who were expelled from or otherwise fled their
homes and lands nearly 60 years ago during the events
surrounding the creation of the state of Israel and the
Arab-Israeli war of 1948(3). They constitute one of the
world’s most long-established refugee populations and they
remain in a form of limbo. They have virtually no prospect in
the foreseeable future of being allowed to return to their
lands and homes located primarily in what is now Israel, and
to a much smaller extent in the Israeli-Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT), even though they have a well-established
right to return under international law. They also remain
subject to various restrictions in the host country, Lebanon,
which places them in a situation akin to that of second class
citizens and denies them access to their full range of human
rights, even though most of them were born and raised in
Lebanon. Thousands have been further displaced even while in
exile in Lebanon: some 30,000 remain displaced by the
May-September 2007 clashes between the Fatah al-Islam armed
group and Lebanese armed forces at the Nahr al-Bared camp.
Just over half – some 53 percent - of Palestinian refugees who
live in Lebanon, reside in war-torn, decaying and
poverty-stricken camps. The conditions for those living
outside the camps in towns, "gatherings", villages and rural
areas, are also poor.

The appalling social and economic conditions of these
refugees demonstrate forcefully the failure of successive
governments in Israel, Lebanon, other regional states and the
wider international community to respect and protect their
rights and to find a sustainable and just solution to their
plight over a period that now stretches to almost six decades.
The refugees who continue to live in the camps and in less
formal "gatherings" have paid a heavy price for this failure
of international leadership. They are not only unable to
return to the homes from which they were expelled or fled, but
they are prevented too from exercising some of their basic
rights in Lebanon, the country in which they obtained refuge.

For these Palestinians, the pain associated with their
expulsion and the decades of living in exile is being
aggravated by the systematic discrimination they suffer in
Lebanon. The life is being choked out of their communities,
forcing the young and healthy to seek jobs abroad and
condemning the rest to a daily struggle for survival.

Most Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have had little choice
but to live in overcrowded and deteriorating camps and
informal gatherings that lack basic infrastructure. The amount
of land allocated to official refugee camps has barely changed
since 1948, despite a fourfold increase in the registered
refugee population. The residents have been forbidden by law
from bringing building materials into some camps, preventing
the repair, expansion or improvement of homes. Those who have
defied the law have faced fines and imprisonment as well as
demolition of the new structures. In camps where additional
rooms or floors have been added to existing buildings, the
alleyways have become even narrower and darker, the majority
of homes receive no direct sunlight and, despite the best
efforts of the inhabitants, the pervasive smells of rubbish
and sewage are at times overwhelming.

For most Palestinians in Lebanon, this has been the only
life they have ever known; born there as refugees, they have
lived all of their lives in Lebanon.

The ghettoization of Palestinians is intensified by the
constant military presence around the camps in southern
Lebanon. Each time refugees want to leave or return to their
homes, they have to pass an army checkpoint and show their
documents, reinforcing a perception that they are outsiders
and a potential threat, rather than refugees in need of
protection.

The discrimination and marginalization they suffer is
compounded by the restrictions they face in the labour market,
which contribute to high levels of unemployment, low wages and
poor working conditions. Until 2005, more than 70 jobs were
barred to Palestinians - around 20 still are. The resultant
poverty is exacerbated by restrictions placed on their access
to state education and social services.

Much of the discriminatory treatment Palestinians face is
rooted in their statelessness, which has been used by the
Lebanese authorities to deny them equal rights not only with
the Lebanese population but also with other foreign residents
of Lebanon.

Periodic conflicts and violence in Lebanon and elsewhere in
the region have worsened the plight of Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon. These include the Lebanese civil war from 1975 to
1990, Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon followed by its
occupation of the south until 2000, and the Israeli-Hizbullah
conflict in 2006.

Among other events that have deeply affected the refugees
were the 1982 expulsion of the Palestine Liberation
Organisation (PLO) from the country, which was quickly
followed by a massacre of Palestinian refugees, as well as
Lebanese residents, in the Sabra and Shatila camps,(4) and the
1984 "war of the camps" in which hundreds of Palestinians were
killed and thousands faced starvation. In addition, the Gulf
War of 1990 slashed remittances sent home to their families by
Palestinians working in the Gulf states. Attacks by Israeli
forces during the July-August 2006 conflict with Hizbullah
destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and economy,
and littered with cluster bombs, land on which some
Palestinians had worked.

The desperate plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon was
thrown into the international spotlight from 20 May 2007, when
fighting that had erupted in Tripoli, north Lebanon, spread to
the nearby Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. The clashes
were between members of Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist armed
group that had recently moved into the camp and established
armed positions within it, thereby putting the security of the
local population at risk, and Lebanese army forces. At least
23 Palestinian civilians and scores of others were injured in
the first 12 days of the fighting(5) which witnessed some
heavy and possibly indiscriminate artillery shelling by the
Lebanese army. Fighting continued for 15 weeks until 2
September, when the Lebanese armed forces seized control of
the camp. The battle resulted in the deaths of 166 Lebanese
army soldiers and 220 Fatah al-Islam militants, according to
the Lebanese authorities, and at least 42 civilians. The camp
was largely destroyed. The conflict caused the displacement of
some 30,000 Palestinian refugees from Nahr al-Bared; most of
these relocated to the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp about
15 km away. There they took up shelter in schools, empty
shops, abandoned buildings and in houses of the local refugee
population – swelling the camp and putting extra strain on its
infrastructure.

With increased tension during the first few weeks of
fighting, Amnesty International received reports of tens of
Palestinian civilians being threatened and abused by soldiers
at checkpoints on account of their identity. Fear of being so
harassed discouraged Palestinians from travelling to their
places of work and elsewhere, causing a further drop in their
already precarious standard of living. With few perceived
opportunities for highlighting any such abuse or for seeking
redress, the episode underlined Palestinians’ economic,
political and legal weakness in the country.(6) On 10
September Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora appealed to
international donors for almost $400 million to rebuild Nahr
al-Bared camp and surrounding areas and to help care for the
displaced until they are able to return to their homes in the
refugee camp.

Amnesty International recognizes the efforts made by the
Lebanese authorities over the past six decades to accommodate
hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and the heavy
cost – economically and in other ways – that this has imposed
on Lebanon and its people. It also recognizes that the
responsibility for the suffering of Palestinian refugees goes
beyond Lebanon, suffering that is rooted in the Palestinian
exodus of 1948. For nearly 60 years, the international
community has excluded Palestinians from the international
system set up to protect refugees. Israel and the
international community have also failed to find an adequate,
durable and sustainable solution, consistent with
international law, to the problems of the millions of
Palestinian refugees scattered around the world.

Amnesty International also recognizes that the current
Lebanese government has shown greater interest than its
predecessors in seeking to ameliorate the conditions of the
Palestinian refugees. In 2005 the authorities relaxed some of
the restrictions on Palestinian refugees, notably by opening
up the possibility of Palestinians gaining employment in a
wider range of jobs though they determined that some jobs
should remain denied to them. The authorities have also sought
to engage in efforts to improve housing conditions, and have
expressed an interest in finding a solution for non-ID
Palestinians - an estimated 3,000 – 5,000 refugees - who are
not registered with either UNRWA or the Lebanese authorities -
whose conditions are the most precarious.

In this report, Amnesty International is encouraging the
Lebanese authorities to go further. After some 60 years, it is
high time that the Lebanese authorities take concrete action
to address the marginalization of the Palestinian refugee
community and sweep away the restrictions that prevent
Palestinian refugees from exercising their economic, social
and cultural rights. To this end, Amnesty International urges
the Lebanese government to take immediate measures to
eliminate all forms of discrimination against Palestinian
refugees, including by:

- repealing or revising all discriminatory laws;
-
ending all unreasonable restrictions on the right of
Palestinian refugees to repair or improve their homes;
-
ensuring that all Palestinian refugees have security of tenure
to protect them from the threat of forced eviction or
intimidation;
- ending the restrictions facing Palestinians
in the labour market and ensuring their rights at work are
respected;
- granting Palestinians access to social
security;
- ensuring that all children have equal access
to education;
- taking all necessary steps to regularize
the status of non-ID Palestinian refugees, including by
providing them with official identification documents.
In
accordance with the principle of international co-operation
and burden and responsibility-sharing,(7) Amnesty
International also urges the international community to
provide technical and financial assistance to Lebanon to
enable it to extend the highest possible level of enjoyment of
human rights protection to its refugee population.(8)

Amnesty International’s work on Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon

Amnesty International has carried out three research visits
to Lebanon to look into the conditions of Palestinian
refugees, the most recent in May/June 2007. In 2003, Amnesty
International visited four camps – Ein el-Hilweh (near Sidon),
Rashidieh (near Tyre), Mar Elias (in Beirut) and Nahr el-Bared
(near Tripoli) – and the Jal el-Bahr gathering near Tyre. The
organisation interviewed refugee families, members of the
Popular Committees who oversee the functioning of the camps,
and representatives of different Palestinian political groups
in the camps. They also met Lebanese government officials,
representatives of UNRWA and the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), and a large number of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), lawyers and human rights advocates
working on Palestinian refugee issues.

In December 2003, Amnesty International sent a memorandum
to the Lebanese government detailing its concerns about
discrimination against Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and
making a number of recommendations as to how these should be
addressed. However, the government did not respond.

Also in December 2003, Amnesty International submitted a
briefing covering many of the same issues to the UN Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).(9) CERD’s
concluding observations on Lebanon’s report to the committee,
issued on 11 March 2004, reflected many of Amnesty
International’s concerns.(10) In particular, it urged the
Lebanese government to "take measures to ameliorate the
situation of Palestinian refugees … and at a minimum to remove
all legislative provisions and change policies that have a
discriminatory effect on the Palestinian population in
comparison with other non-citizens."

Amnesty International undertook a further visit to Lebanon
in March 2005 in order to assess whether there had been
significant changes in the conditions of Palestinian refugees,
and to assess the practical implications of the restrictions
placed on them. Amnesty International delegates visited the
following camps: Ein el-Hilweh, Rashidieh, Burj el-Shemali and
El-Buss (Sidon); Burj el-Barajneh, Sabra and Shatila (Beirut);
and Nahr el-Bared (near Tripoli). They also visited the
gatherings of Jal el-Bahr and El-Maachouk (both near Tyre).
The delegates interviewed Palestinian individuals, families
and groups. Amnesty International delegates also met
representatives of UNRWA and NGOs working on Palestinian
refugee issues, as well as UNHCR.

In April 2006, Amnesty International submitted a briefing
concerning violations of the rights of Palestinian refugee
children in Lebanon to the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child, the expert body that monitors the Convention on the
Rights of the Child.(11) The Committee’s concluding
observations on Lebanon’s report reflected Amnesty
International’s concerns.(12)

Amnesty International’s most recent visit was carried out
in May/June 2007, following the outbreak of fighting between
fighters of the Fatah al-Islam armed group and the Lebanese
armed forces. Amnesty International delegates visited the
conflict area and met with Palestinians displaced from Nahr
al-Bared, residents of Beddawi, health professionals and
representatives of UNRWA and local NGOs.

Amnesty International is issuing this report to highlight
the ways in which the Lebanese government’s discriminatory
practices against Palestinians continue to breach the
country’s obligations under international human rights law,
including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Convention on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), all treaties to
which Lebanon is a state party, and to show the devastating
impact these breaches have on hundreds of thousands of people
who have already suffered so much and for so long.

2. PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AND THEIR RIGHTS

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in
what is now Israel between late 1947 and the first half of
1949 to escape the violence linked to the creation of the
state of Israel and the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. By 1950,
around 914,000 of them were registered as refugees. A further
400,000 Palestinians were displaced when Israel occupied
territory, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in 1967. In
all, more than half of the Palestinian population is
displaced, either living as refugees in other countries or
internally displaced and remaining in the occupied West Bank
and Gaza Strip. The countries/areas hosting most Palestinian
refugees are Jordan (1,858,362), the Gaza Strip (1,016,964),
the West Bank (722,302), Syria (442,363) and Lebanon
(408,438).(13)

The international community responded
to the mass flight of Palestinians by creating UNRWA in 1949
to assist Palestinian refugees.(14) UNRWA’s area of operation
includes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and
Lebanon.(15) When states drafted the statute of the UNHCR and
the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
(Refugee Convention), they included provisions that excluded
Palestinian refugees who were receiving assistance from
UNRWA.(16) As UNRWA is primarily a relief agency, Palestinian
refugees receiving assistance from UNRWA became the only
refugee population in the world excluded from the
international protection accorded by the UNHCR Statute and the
Refugee Convention.

There are three categories of Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon: refugees registered with UNRWA (registered refugees),
who are also registered with the Lebanese authorities;
refugees registered with the Lebanese authorities but not
registered with UNRWA (non-registered refugees); and refugees
not registered with UNRWA or the Lebanese authorities
(commonly referred to as non-ID refugees) whose lack of valid
identification documents and insecure legal status has serious
implications for their human rights in Lebanon.

In addition to the 400,000 registered Palestinian refugees
in Lebanon, there are an estimated 10,000 to 35,000
non-registered refugees and a further 3,000-5,000 non-ID
refugees.(17) However, the exact number of registered
Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon today is unknown as
some have left Lebanon since obtaining registration to live
elsewhere. The last official census in Lebanon took place in
1932 and there has never been a census aimed at the
Palestinian refugee population.

UNRWA services 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon,
often referred to as "official camps".(18) UNRWA offers
development and maintenance of basic infrastructure to
schools, clinics and property. UNRWA also provides education,
health, relief and social services to registered and
non-registered Palestinian refugees whether inside or outside
the camps, including gatherings. There are also thousands of
refugees in dozens of these informal gatherings, sometimes
referred to as "unofficial camps", spread throughout Lebanon.
UNRWA is generally unable to provide the gatherings with
common services, such as solid waste disposal, as this falls
under the responsibility of the local authorities.(19)
However, registered Palestinian refugees who live in the
gatherings can access UNRWA assistance and services in other
locations.

Refugee camps

The 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are:(20)

Ein el-Hilweh – 45,967 registered residents

Nahr el-Bared – 31,303

Rashidieh – 29,361

Burj el-Shemali – 19,074

Beddawi – 15,947

Burj el-Barajneh – 15,718

El-Buss – 9,508

Shatila – 8,370

Wavel – 7,668

Mieh Mieh 4,569

Dbayeh 4,025

Mar Elias 616

Under international law,(22)
Palestinians who fled or were otherwise forcibly displaced
from their homes and lands in Mandate Palestine (now Israel
and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip) have the
right to return. This right also applies to those of their
descendants who have maintained what the Human Rights
Committee calls "close and enduring connections" with the
area.(23) However, without prejudice to this internationally
recognized right, whose respect Amnesty International
continues to promote(24), it is also clear that the Lebanese
government, in particular, as well as the broader
international community, have the obligation to respect and
ensure the full range of civil, political, economic, social
and cultural rights of Palestinians living in Lebanon, without
discrimination. These rights include the rights to work, to
education, to the highest attainable standard of health, to
adequate housing and an adequate standard of living.

International law emphasizes that civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights should be exercised
without discrimination on grounds such as "national or social
origin, property or other status".(25) States must ensure that
any discrimination is eliminated.(26) The ICESCR provides for
the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural
rights, "to the maximum of [each state party’s] available
resources".(27) The discretion given to developing countries
in the extent to which they must ensure economic rights for
non-nationals(28) does not justify restricting access to
rights on the basis of preserving the right to return (as
Lebanon has argued). Furthermore, states should not interpret
the distinction between nationals and non-nationals to
undermine their obligations under international human rights
law.(29)

3. HOUSING DISGRACE

"Our generation, where are we going to live? There is no
place in the camp and we cannot own property outside."

This is how 21-year-old Qassem Muhammad Hammadi from Burj
el-Barajneh camp described the housing crisis for Palestinians
in Lebanon when he was interviewed by Amnesty International.

The land area allocated to the 12 official Palestinian
refugee camps in Lebanon has remained largely unchanged since
1948, despite the growth in the number of Palestinian refugees
in Lebanon from an estimated 100,000(30) in 1949 to an
officially estimated 400,000 at present.(31) The result is
chronic overcrowding that worsens yearly.

Some households visited by Amnesty International had
families of 10 sharing a single room. Lack of space within the
camps’ boundaries restricts horizontal expansion and
consequently the only alternative, particularly in the most
densely-populated camps of Shatila, Burj el-Barajneh, Ein
al-Hilweh and, until it was virtually destroyed in 2007, Nahr
al-Bared, is to build upwards. Such extensions tend to be
constructed below minimum international safety standard levels
and are vulnerable to structural failure.

In Ein el-Hilweh about three-quarters of the camp is known
as "ahya’ dakhiliya" (internal areas). In such
permanently dingy quarters, humidity is high. Hundreds of
people with respiratory problems, especially children,
reportedly visit UNRWA clinics every day as a result. "Since
the buildings touch," said an elderly widow who lives with
eight relatives in one apartment there, "we get no sunlight in
the camp".

Burj el-Barajneh camp has more people per square kilometre
than Hong Kong or Mumbai.(32) With so many homes squeezed into
a small area, it is virtually impossible to get large pieces
of furniture into some homes in the camp. One resident of Burj
el-Barajneh camp told Amnesty International: "There is no
privacy. There is no view, neither of the sea nor of the
mountains. There is not space for children to play. We [only]
have the right to dream about these things." The only water,
drawn from six wells, is salty and cannot be used as drinking
water. Because the camp is on a hillside, every time it rains
heavily water runs down the hill into homes.

In addition to the problems of overcrowding and inadequate
basic infrastructure, years of restrictions imposed by the
Lebanese authorities have meant that hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians have been living for decades in makeshift or
crumbling structures, crammed into camps that lack basic
facilities and infrastructure. The right of these Palestinians
to adequate housing is being violated on a grand scale.

In the south of Lebanon, the Lebanese authorities largely
prohibited the entry of building materials into Palestinian
refugee camps until May 2007. This ban led to serious
deterioration of houses and the infrastructure.

For example, when Amnesty International visited Burj
el-Shemali camp in 2005, people were living almost exclusively
in corrugated iron huts, without tiled roofs, ventilation or
sanitation. The "zinco" houses were excessively hot in summer,
too cold in winter. The camp’s 17,000 residents were not
allowed to bring building materials into the camp. "We could
not get an electricity cable or a brick inside," said Mahmoud
al-Khatib. A woman who lives in the settlement with her five
children told Amnesty International: "If we even add one stone
to the house, the police will come after us."

Mahmoud al-Khatib added:

"There are many houses [partly built] with
corrugated iron and many old houses that are falling
apart… Construction materials were not allowed in the
camp. We could not get an electricity cable or a brick
inside. You could do it through an agent who has
arrangement with [Lebanese] security. A load of
sand cost LL100,000 in the camp, while outside it cost
LL40,000."

However, there has been some
relaxation on this ban on building materials over the past
three years. The prohibition was revoked for several months
starting in late 2004, which coincided with a visit to Lebanon
by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, but
was reportedly briefly reinstated in June 2005. Since then,
the prohibition has been eased. On 29 May 2007, the
Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, established in
October 2005 following an initiative by Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora’s office to improve dialogue between the Lebanese
authorities, Palestinian political groups and UNRWA, stated
that one of the successes of its work was that people could
now obtain a permit for bringing building materials into the
southern camps in about 48 hours. Palestinian human rights
organizations in Lebanon confirmed that restrictions had
indeed been eased and permits could be obtained more quickly,
although not always without difficulties or within 48 hours.
These organizations also pointed out that the easing of
restrictions is not based in law and so could be changed at
any time. In addition, decades of restrictions mean there is a
widespread need for renovation.

Palestinian refugees in gatherings have been particularly
hard hit. Homes are typically made of corrugated metal sheets
placed side by side to act as walls and

ceilings. They provide little protection from the elements,
letting in both rain and wind, and they become excessively hot
during the summer. In the Nahr el-Bared camp near Tripoli, a
group of three families, totalling 11 people, who lived
together in one structure there prior to the battle in the
camp in 2007, told Amnesty International that one of their
babies had died in the summer heat after being left in the
main room. The room was made entirely of zinc sheeting and had
no ventilation.

Replacing the metal sheets with brick would substantially
improve the quality of housing for refugees, and make the
houses safer. Residents in Jal el-Bahr told Amnesty
International that a number of homes in the gathering had been
completely destroyed by sea water flooding in 2005.

Palestinian refugees who have attempted to replace
corrugated metal sheets with bricks and mortar have been fined
and had their new structures pulled down by the local police.
In one case, a family in El-Maachouk settlement had borrowed
money to rebuild their dilapidated house. The new structure
was bulldozed by the Lebanese authorities because the family
had not received permission to build it. The family then had
to rent accommodation while paying back the loan, leaving them
impoverished.

In Jal el-Bahr, a Palestinian couple with three children
told Amnesty International that they had built a permanent
wall onto the corrugated iron structure of their home 15 days
earlier. The wife was arrested soon after, despite having a
broken leg, and was only released when the wall was
demolished.

Farah, a widow with three children living in Jal el-Bahr,
said: "In winter water comes through the corrugated iron roof.
I am afraid to do repairs because we can be detained or
fined." Khaled, who lives with 14 other members of his family
in the gathering close to his parents, told Amnesty
International:

"[My parents’] house has one room where the
ceiling is made of corrugated metal and the ceiling in the
other room is made of bamboo/wood sticks and on top of
them mud. To use bricks in the ceiling instead we need
permission from the local authority. The local authority
does not give permission. We could go to the governorate
but it does not give permission either. I built [the
wall of] a small room in 2003. The police came and
pulled it down and I had to pay a LL230,000
fine."

The right to adequate housing is guaranteed in, among other
standards, the ICESCR, to which Lebanon is a party.(33)
According to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (CESCR), the right to adequate housing includes legal
security of tenure and protection from forced eviction and
other harassment and threats; availability of services,
materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability;
habitability; accessibility; location; and cultural
adequacy.(34)

Most of these aspects of the right to
adequate housing are being denied to Palestinians in Lebanon.
For example, many dwellings in the camps and gatherings fail
to reach acceptable standards of habitability, "in terms of
providing inhabitants with adequate space and protecting them
from cold, damp, heat, rain, wind or other threats to health,
[and] structural hazards", which the CESCR has stated is an
essential element of adequate housing.(35)

The CESCR also states that the right to adequate housing
should not be interpreted as "merely having a roof over one’s
head … rather it should be seen as the right to live somewhere
in security, peace and dignity."(36) Among the obligations
placed on states is that they should not arbitrarily impede
realisation of the right by individuals themselves. As the
CESCR has stated, "many of the
measures required to promote the right to housing would only
require the abstention by the Government from certain
practices and a commitment to facilitating ‘self-help’ by
affected groups."(37) The Lebanese authorities’ ban on
Palestinians improving homes that are wholly inadequate,
unsafe and uninhabitable, and their arbitrary demolition of
improvements made by refugees, are clear violations of the
right to adequate housing.

Palestinian refugees also suffer the consequences of being
denied security of tenure. A formal, administrative system for
registering legal title to housing operates in the camps; no
such system exists in the gatherings. This leaves refugees
vulnerable to harassment and other threats, including the
demolition of new building works.

Security of tenure is a key aspect of the right to adequate
housing. According to the CESCR:

"[tenure] takes a variety of forms, including… informal
settlements, including occupation of land or property.
Notwithstanding the type of tenure, all persons should possess
a degree of security of tenure which guarantees legal
protection against forced eviction, harassment and other
threats. States parties should consequently take immediate
measures aimed at conferring legal security of tenure upon
those persons and households currently lacking such
protection, in genuine consultation with affected persons and
groups."(38)

For Palestinian refugees living outside of camps and
gatherings, the situation is little better. Presidential
Decree 11614 of 1969, as modified by Decree 296 of 2001,
prohibits people who do "not carry a citizenship issued by a
recognized state" from securing legal title to housing and
land in Lebanon. In the context of Lebanon, although they are
not specified in the Decree, this effectively means
Palestinian refugees, because virtually all stateless people
in Lebanon are Palestinian refugees, and most Palestinian
refugees are stateless. Article 1 of the amended Decree
states:

"No real right [ie legal right to housing, land
or property] of any kind may be acquired by any person
that does not carry a citizenship issued by a recognized
state, or by any person if such acquisition contradicts
with the provisions of the constitution relating to the
prohibition of settlement (tawteen)."(39)

The ban on Palestinians registering legal title to housing
and land greatly diminishes their chance of enjoying security
of tenure outside the camps, leaving most of them with little
choice but to remain in the camps and gatherings.

The Decree also prevents Palestinian refugees from
inheriting housing or land, and from registering real estate,
even if they have been paying for it in instalments for years.

In its periodic report to the UN Committee on the Rights of
the Child, the Lebanese government justified the policies that
prevent Palestinian refugees from improving their homes using
the argument – which Amnesty International considers to be
spurious – that it would undermine Palestinians’ right of
return if they were to be allowed rights to adequate housing
in Lebanon:

"Lebanese authorities forbid the construction of
new camps, expansion of existing camps, renovation and
reconstruction, in order to prevent the consolidation of
the Palestinian presence in Lebanon and implicitly accept
the forced resettlement and destroy the principle behind
the right of return. This principle is of great importance
for both the Lebanese as well as the Palestinian
population and they hold on to it. Consequently, UNRWA was
unable to contribute to the renovation of three camps
located in the south due to the Lebanese authorities’
decision to ban the introduction of construction materials
into the camps since 1998, which eventually lead to
the
deterioration of the situation of these
camps due to limited areas and tremendous increase in the
population size."(40)

The fulfilment of the
economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
would not in any way prejudice their right to return. In any
case, the Lebanese government’s position does not make the
discriminatory laws and practices that prevent Palestinians
enjoying their right to adequate housing any less of a breach
Lebanon’s obligations under international human rights
law.(41)

4. DISCRIMINATORY LABOUR MARKET

The discrimination suffered by Palestinians in Lebanon’s
labour market was raised by virtually all the refugees
interviewed by Amnesty International. In El-Maachouk
settlement, for example, a 27-year-old woman with six children
and seven step children said: "Even if we get an education, we
are not allowed to get a [good] job." This view was echoed by
Hania, a woman struggling to raise six children alone in north
Lebanon: "Even with a PhD you can’t work as an accountant. If
you are an engineer, you have to work as a labourer."

Time after time the refugees complained about how they were
barred from jobs, either by law or prejudice, however well
qualified they were. A resident of El-Buss camp said:

"I am a video cameraman but I cannot get
professional jobs at five star hotels and so on because if
they find out that I am a Palestinian I will be fined and
my camera will be confiscated."

Another El-Buss
resident, 24-year-old Mazen, said:

"I have been looking for a job for five months. I
had an interview [recently] with an IT company.
They didn’t know I was Palestinian. After the interview,
when I filled in an application that asked for my
nationality, they said they could not employ me as I am
Palestinian. They could do nothing for me as I do not have
a work permit."

For many years, more than 70
jobs were off-limits to Palestinians – by government decree.
In June 2005, in a welcome move, the Minister of Labour lifted
the ban on 50 jobs, listed in the 1995 amendments to the 1962
Decree as:

a) Employees: "All administrative and mercantile
work of whatever nature, in particular the work of
director general, director, personnel manager, treasurer,
secretary, archivist, file clerk, computer, commercial
officer, marketing officer, trade consultant, foreman,
warehouse officer, seller, money exchange, jewellery,
laboratory, pharmacy, electric mains, electronic works,
paint works, glass [installation], mechanics and
maintenance, doorkeeper, concierge, guard, driver, cook,
waiter, barber, elementary, intermediate and secondary
schoolteacher…

"b) Employers: All commercial work of whatever
nature; banking, accounting, assessors, engineering work
of whatever kind, contracts and trade in building,
jewellery, manufacturing of shoes and apparel, all
furniture work of whatever kind and the industries that
rely on it, sweets industry, printing, publication and
distribution, haircutting and styling, clothing press and
cleaners, car repair (metal work, mechanical, glass
attachment, upholstery, car electric works)." (42)

However, despite this move and the efforts made
by the current Lebanese government in co-ordination with UNRWA
and other organizations to improve the "employability" of
Palestinians in Lebanon, serious concerns remain about
Palestinians’ rights in the labour market.

First, many Palestinians were already working in these
jobs, but illegally. Although they can now do such work
"legally", there is a disincentive to regularize their
positions as they would then have to pay taxes but would still
not be entitled to benefit from the Lebanese social security
system (see below). The time and expense needed to apply for
these posts can also be a disincentive for employers as well
as employees. Moreover, the permits reportedly remain
temporary and can be annulled at any time (see below). These
factors seem to explain why only a few hundred Palestinians
have obtained work permits for the newly permitted jobs.(43)

Second, the Ministry of Labour’s decision to lift the ban
on some jobs has not been passed into law and could therefore
be reversed or amended at any time.(44)

Third, professions such as law, medicine and engineering
remain prohibited for Palestinians.(45) In fact, some
Palestinians do work in these professions, but illegally and
with lower wages and less job security.

As in most countries, Lebanese, as nationals, enjoy
preferential treatment over foreign nationals in terms of
access to employment. In Lebanon, this differentiation extends
to foreign nationals who were born or have lived most or all
of their lives in Lebanon, most notably Palestinian refugees.

Presidential Decree 17561 of 18 September 1964 regulates
the work of foreign nationals in Lebanon. Article 2 specifies
that non-nationals wanting paid or unpaid work must obtain
prior approval from the Ministry of Labour before travelling
to Lebanon. Article 8 specifies:

"Taking into consideration the principal of
preferential treatment of Lebanese nationals, it is
possible to grant an alien a work permit or to renew it,
whether s/he is residing in Lebanese territory or wishes
to enter it after obtaining prior approval, if s/he meets
one of the following conditions:

"If s/he is a specialist or an expert whose
[job] cannot be done by a Lebanese national; the
relevant department may require the employer to publish an
advertisement at his own expense in three daily newspapers
that the department shall designate, at least three
times…"

Other people eligible for work
permits are foreign nationals who have lived in Lebanon since
before 1954 and work for at least nine months a year at an
institution, and foreign men who have been married to a
Lebanese woman for at least a year (but not foreign women
married to a Lebanese man).

The requirements for obtaining a work permit also mean that
it is rare for employers to seek one for a Palestinian refugee
or for other foreign nationals living in Lebanon. Generally,
businesses are much more likely to employ Palestinian refugees
in lower status and lower paid jobs that do not require a work
permit, such as construction work or cleaning. In these jobs,
Palestinians compete mostly with other foreign nationals.
Sometimes, employers do take on Palestinian refugees in jobs
that require a work permit but without seeking such a permit;
in such cases, the Palestinian employees do not enjoy the
benefits and protection of a contract of employment and are
often paid less than their Lebanese counterparts. As Mazen of
Burj el-Barajneh told Amnesty International:

"Even if you do get a job, Palestinians are paid
less. While a Lebanese person would be paid US$500-600 as
a starting salary, a Palestinian would get US$300-400 for
the same job."

Palestinian refugees and
Palestinian civil society organizations told Amnesty
International about cases of well-trained and experienced
medical doctors who were working in Lebanese hospitals but
whose employment contracts stated that they were nurses or
cleaners. This was because they could not officially be
employed as doctors because the profession is barred to
Palestinians. As a consequence, they were being paid less than
their Lebanese counterparts. Such direct discrimination
clearly violates Lebanon’s obligations under the ICESCR (see
box).

Sa’id, who lives in Burj el-Barajneh, told Amnesty
International:

"I work as a driver. To be a driver you need a
public licence, which is different from a private licence
and cannot be obtained by Palestinians because you must be
part of the drivers’ syndicate, which is barred to
Palestinians. So I am working illegally. How can you ask
for your rights when you are working illegally?

"I was working in a textile trading company for
about six years. The owner sold the company. I was in
charge of a lot of the work: procurement, distribution,
etc… My salary had reached US$600. The new owner wanted to
reduce my salary to US$300. What helped him do this was
that I did not have a contract; no rights… All the effort
I put in establishing the company were swept away when a
new person bought the company. After working there for
years, I did not get any compensation. I either had to
accept the US$300 or leave; this was not enough to meet
expenses…"

Sa’id also spoke of how job
insecurity, with the implicit lack of redundancy money or
social security benefits, means that he had to cut back on
what he would otherwise be providing for his children:

"I am 40 but I feel like my time has passed. Now
what’s important is my children. I do not want them to
miss out on the things I did not enjoy. But I have to try
to save in case I lose my job. To do this I have to
deprive my children of some things like nice food, or
taking them to the mountain or to the sea. Also, you have
to save on their clothes and their pocket
money."

The Husseinis are a Palestinian family of
18 people who have lived in Lebanon since 1948. They live in
Jal el-Bahr gathering near Tyre which has almost no
infrastructure. Three members of the family who are fishermen
provide the only source of income. Only Lebanese nationals can
obtain the license needed to own a fishing boat. To obtain a
license, Palestinians therefore need a Lebanese partner under
whose name the boat is registered. They are then forced to
give a large share of their catch to the Lebanese partner.
They also need a permit to sell their catch, which they cannot
obtain. If they are stopped by police they may be fined up to
LL300,000 (around US$200).

The right to work

The right to work and rights at work are protected in a
range of binding international laws to which Lebanon is
party.(46) According to these standards, Lebanon is required
to take steps towards achieving progressively the full
realization of the right to work for everyone, without
discrimination, including on the basis of national origin.(47)

The ICESCR provides that "developing countries, with due
regard to human rights and the national economy, may determine
to what extent they would guarantee the economic rights
recognised in the present Covenant to non-nationals".(48) As
the provision makes clear, restrictions on the economic rights
of non-nationals that have a grave impact on the human rights
of the people affected would be in breach of international
legal obligations.

Lebanon applies the principle of reciprocity, whereby it
grants the right to work to nationals of other states whose
countries grant Lebanese citizens the right to work. This
discriminates against Palestinians because they are stateless;
those who lack citizenship of any state are effectively
excluded from the possibility of earning their living through
most types of work. Similarly, Palestinians in Lebanon are
unable to access social security on the grounds of lack of
reciprocity.(49) This remains the case when they are working
legally and paying social security contributions.

The ICERD prohibits racial discrimination(50) in the
enjoyment of "the rights to work, to free choice of
employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, to
protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work,
to just and favourable remuneration." The CERD has clarified
that states parties should "take measures to eliminate
discrimination against non-citizens in relation to working
conditions and work requirements, including employment rules
and practices with discriminatory effect or purpose."(51)

Under the ICESCR, Lebanon is also obliged to ensure that
everyone who works enjoys just and favourable conditions of
work, irrespective of their status. Article 7 states:

"The States Parties to the present Covenant
recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just
and favourable conditions of work which ensure, in
particular:

(a) Remuneration which provides
all workers, as a minimum, with:

(i) Fair wages and equal remuneration for work
of equal value without distinction of any kind, in
particular women being guaranteed conditions of work
not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay
for equal work…;

(b) Safe and
healthy working conditions;…

(d) Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of
working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as
remuneration for public holidays…"

The severe
difficulties faced by Palestinians in accessing employment and
while at work have a direct effect on their enjoyment of other
rights, including the right to enjoy an adequate standard of
living, adequate housing and the right to education.

5. LACK OF CARE

"We cannot get proper healthcare because we are
Palestinians. If your child is sick, he will just die." This
was how a Palestinian woman, who is registered with UNRWA and
lives in El-Maachouk gathering, described the healthcare
situation for Palestinians in Lebanon.

Medical treatment is expensive in Lebanon and only
partially covered by UNRWA for registered refugees and not at
all for others.(52) Secondary healthcare is rarely subsidized
at all. In addition, there is a shortage of health workers,
health facilities and equipment in the camps and gatherings
where Palestinians live.

The implications for refugees can be catastrophic. Ahmed
Moussa, from the Nahr el-Bared camp near Tripoli, told Amnesty
International:

"My wife’s father got gangrene in his leg. UNRWA
paid for the hospital bed but the family had to find money
for medicines – around LL 1 million. We got some help from
NGOs but couldn’t find it all, and his condition
worsened."

Yasmin, who lives in El-Maachouk settlement, said:

"My 14-year-old son broke his leg and needs a metal
pin inserted, which costs LL 250,000. I can’t afford this,
so he just sits at home. UNRWA will pay half the cost of
the hospital, but not the cost of the metal
pins."

The right to health(53) of many of Lebanon’s Palestinians
refugees – a right enshrined in treaties that the Lebanese
authorities have committed to uphold - is clearly being
violated as a result of the poor healthcare available to them.

The government of Lebanon freely admits to what it calls
the "unbearable" living conditions of Palestinian
refugees,(54) but has failed to take effective steps to
improve these conditions and is failing, too, in its
obligation to ensure that minimum essential levels of
healthcare, at the very least, are afforded to everyone in
Lebanon, including refugees. The government of Lebanon has
itself recognized that:

"The prevalence of diseases among Palestinian
children is directly related to poverty and substandard
housing and unhealthy environments where they live(55)… As
for the informal and random housing compounds of
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, they are in even worse
shape than the formal camps, where the residents suffer
from multiple problems related to the deteriorating health
and environmental conditions as well as the deprivation
from the simplest types of social services ... The
scarcity of social services on all levels from either
UNRWA or the Lebanese government makes the social and
living conditions unbearable…"(56)

The health and
security of Palestinians is also threatened because of
discriminatory laws that deny them social security because
they are stateless. Access to social security for non-citizens
in Lebanon is dependent on "reciprocity of treatment" in the
non-citizen’s home state. As mentioned above, such reciprocity
cannot apply to Palestinians who are stateless. Article 9(4)
of Lebanon’s Social Security Law states:

"Foreign Labourers working on Lebanese soil are not
subject to the provisions of this law, and therefore not
entitled to the benefits of any and all sections of Social
Security, except if the country of their origin affords
its Lebanese residents the same treatment as its own
citizens with regard to Social
Security."(57)

This breaches Lebanon’s
obligations under international human rights law by
effectively denying Palestinian refugees social security
protection.

The right to social security is guaranteed by Article 9 of
the ICESCR, which states that "the States Parties to the
present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to social
security, including social insurance," as well the ICERD
(Article 5(e)(iv)), the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (Articles 11(1)(e) and
14(2)(c), the CRC (Article 26), and several provisions of the
International Labour Organisation (ILO).

6. POINTLESS EDUCATION?

Hayat, who lives in El-Buss camp and is divorced with two
children, told Amnesty International that her daughter had to
leave school during 7th grade, and that her son plans to
finish high school and go to university if his grandparents
can pay, although "he is worried that as a Palestinian his
education will be pointless."

One consequence of the Lebanese authorities’ failure to
offer adequate education and job prospects to Palestinian
children is a high drop-out rate as children seek to take paid
employment so as to help provide income for their families.
Many look for work as manual labourers or as rag pickers
(sorting through rubbish to find things to sell for
recycling). Many families told Amnesty International that
their children had dropped out of school because they thought
that years spent on education would be wasted as this would
not be enough to open the door to well-paid jobs in Lebanon.
Marwan is one of those young people:

"As a Palestinian, you study and pay fees, then you
can’t work. You can only work here in the hospital in the
camp. I dropped out after 6th grade because my parents
could not afford it. I have cousins who finished school
and work in paint jobs and don’t get back any of what they
spent.

"When I dropped out of school I learned butchery; I
worked with a Lebanese for seven years outside the camp. I
used to get LL100,000 per week while a Lebanese who did
the same job got LL250,000 even though I did the same job
and better."

In its report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
the government of Lebanon acknowledged frankly the grossly
unsatisfactory education situation of Palestinian children:

"The educational levels of Palestinian
[refugee] children is not comparable to that of
Lebanese children or even to Palestinian [refugee]
children living in neighbouring Arab hosting countries.
Out of three Palestinian children in Lebanon, aged 10 and
above, one child leaves school before finishing primary or
intermediate. The drop out rate is 39%, which is
[10-fold] higher than for Lebanese students for
male and female alike. As for those holding high-school
degrees or higher education they are few in numbers and
they are [two-fold] less in comparison to Lebanese
students… Those opting to pursue their education and they
are few, try to get enrolled in free governmental schools.
Furthermore, places are limited in these schools, and
priority is given to Lebanese students whenever they are
available."(58)

Law No. 686 of 1998 specifies
that only Lebanese children have a right to free primary
education.(59) However, the Lebanese authorities are obliged
under the ICESCR and the CRC to ensure the right to education
for all children under their jurisdiction. This includes, in
particular, ensuring the provision of free and compulsory
primary education to all children in Lebanon without
discrimination on the basis of their status as refugees or
asylum-seekers, any other legal status, or the legal status of
their parents or guardians.

Administrative obstacles and other policies that nullify
the enjoyment of the right to education, including through
discrimination, are also prohibited under international human
rights law.(60)

Registered Palestinian refugee children can enrol in the 80
elementary and preparatory schools and six secondary schools
run by UNRWA in Lebanon. Lebanon is the only country in which
UNRWA operates secondary schools – the reason given is that
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon "have limited access to public
secondary education, and most cannot afford the high cost of
private secondary schooling."(61) UNRWA’s Siblin Training
Centre provides 850 vocational training places plus a teacher
training scheme for registered refugees who are then mostly
employed in UNRWA schools. UNRWA also provided 189 university
scholarships in 2006-2007.

Non-ID Palestinian refugee children may attend classes in
UNRWA schools and they can also attend private elementary
schools, if they can afford the fees. However, they are
generally denied recognition of educational achievement in
Lebanese secondary schools as all students require
identification documents – conspicuously lacking for non-ID
Palestinian refugees – to sit the Lebanese state exams, which
in turn give access to higher levels of education.(62)

7. no id, NO RIGHTS

Between 3,000 and 5,000(63) non-ID Palestinian refugees who
are not registered with the Lebanese authorities or UNRWA face
even more restrictions of their human rights than registered
Palestinian refugees. They also are not officially entitled to
UNRWA services, although they can sometimes access them
informally.(64)

Many non-ID refugees have lived in Lebanon for decades and
are married to registered Palestinian refugees. However, their
children are not recognized as registered Palestinian
refugees.

The most common reasons for Palestinians lacking ID
are:

The increasing difficulty in obtaining
government registration since 1962 (none of the non-ID
refugees or their families interviewed in a December 2005
study by Frontiers, a Lebanese NGO working on migrants’
issues, had arrived before 1962).(65)

The general reluctance of the Lebanese
authorities to allow an increase in the official number of
UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees. According to reports
from the Danish Refugee Council, only 5 per cent of those
interviewed in its study of 2005 had never been registered
with either UNRWA or the government authorities of another
country. Similarly, approximately half of the non-ID cases
passed to UNRWA by the Danish Refugee Council had already
been registered with UNRWA in other fields – that is, they
were entitled to be registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, but
the government had resisted the transfer of their status to
Lebanon.

The choice made by some Palestinians who came
to Lebanon during the 1970s in order to join the PLO or
other political parties not to register upon arrival. Once
the PLO was expelled from Lebanon in 1982, these
Palestinians were then not allowed back to their original
host countries. Many non-ID refugees are these Palestinians
and their descendants.

Some of the other issues
that particularly affect non-ID Palestinian refugees are:

- The right to be registered and the right to a name
and nationality. Children who have a registered
Palestinian refugee father are registered as refugees by UNRWA
and recognized by the Lebanese state. However, children born
to non-ID Palestinian fathers (who do not themselves possess
recognized identity documents) are not registered with UNRWA,
do not receive recognized identity documents from the Lebanese
state, and cannot acquire a nationality even if they have a
Lebanese mother (Lebanese law stipulates that nationality can
only be passed on by the father). This breaches Lebanon’s
obligations. Article 7(1) of the CRC states that every child
has the right to be registered immediately after birth and the
right to have a name and to acquire a nationality.

- The right to education. The non-registration of
children of non-ID Palestinian refugees adversely affects
their ability to exercise their human rights, including their
right to education. While non-ID children might be able
informally to attend schools with sympathetic teachers, they
cannot receive official qualifications at any level. As a
result, their educational and job prospects are severely
limited. "You are told that you’re just a non-ID person – what
do you need an education for?" bemoaned 19-year-old Samar when
speaking to Amnesty International in Beirut.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that
the Lebanese government should take action to address this
serious abuse of a child’s rights:

"In order to secure the full enjoyment of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms by children in Lebanon,
the Committee recommends that the State party ensure that
all children within its territory, including the children
of non-ID Palestinian refugees, are registered immediately
after birth. Meanwhile, children whose births have not
been registered and who are without official documentation
should be allowed to access basic services, such as health
and education, while waiting to be properly
registered." (66)

- Registration of
marriages. Article 23(2) of the ICCPR states that
"the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and
to found a family shall be recognized."(67) This right is not
respected in Lebanon for non-ID Palestinian refugees. Amnesty
International has documented many cases of non-ID Palestinian
refugees who have not been able to get married or to get their
marriages registered as they do not possess the necessary
documentation.

Miryam, for example, is a non-ID Palestinian refugee. When
interviewed by Amnesty International, she had been engaged for
five years to a Lebanese man. However, she had not been able
to get married as her marriage would not be legally recognized
due to her lack of ID documents. Her family had been trying to
obtain the necessary papers for her for years but without
success and did not know anything more that they could do. She
told Amnesty International that she was very depressed about
her situation and its seeming hopelessness.

Marriage within the Palestinian community in Lebanon is the
most socially acceptable path for Palestinian refugees who
wish to start a family, so not being able to register
marriages can have devastating consequences for both men and
women.

- Freedom of movement. The freedom of
movement of non-ID Palestinian refugees is restricted because
they do not have legal residency in Lebanon. Many of them fear
that they will be arrested if they leave their camp and seek
to travel in Lebanon. This has a direct negative effect on
their everyday life, including their ability to work. Article
12(1) of the ICCPR states:

"[E]veryone lawfully within the territory of a
State shall, within that territory, have the right to
liberty of movement and freedom to choose his
residence."

The current Lebanese government
has shown more interest than its predecessors in resolving the
issue of non-ID Palestinians, but as of September 2007 no
solution had been formulated.

8. recommendations

With improved dialogue between the Lebanese authorities,
Palestinian political groups and UNRWA there is hope that this
apparent enthusiasm to resolve long-standing and sensitive
issues can be translated into reforms that can be extended and
deepened. After nearly 60 years, it is certainly time that the
Lebanese government took concrete steps to address the plight
of the country’s Palestinian refugees. In its reporting to UN
treaty bodies, the government has acknowledged candidly the
highly unsatisfactory conditions to which Palestinian refugees
have been exposed in Lebanon and recently has been showing
some resolve to remedy the situation.

What may have initially appeared to be a temporary
situation in 1948 has proved to be a long-term challenge.
During these decades, generations of Palestinians have grown
up in Lebanon knowing little or nothing other than life in the
refugee camps and facing discrimination and other abuses.
Their limited living areas have become more cramped as the
camps have been required to accommodate growing numbers of
families. They should not be left to suffer more in Lebanon,
pending a durable solution of their plight as refugees that
fully respects and protects their human rights, including
their right to return.

The Lebanese people, and successive Lebanese governments,
have shown great generosity towards the many Palestinian
refugees in their country. At the same time, Lebanese society
has been greatly enriched by the refugees’ presence and their
contribution to the economic and cultural life of Lebanon. The
continuing restrictions on Palestinian refugees, which
effectively renders them the status of second class residents,
continue to be little short of a scandal and they should be
lifted without further procrastination or delay.

To this end, Amnesty International makes the following
recommendations:

To the Lebanese
government

Discrimination
· Take the
necessary legislative and administrative measure to end all
forms of discrimination against Palestinian refugees and to
fully protect and uphold their human rights in
Lebanon.

Housing
· Remove all restrictions
that arbitrarily limit the exercise of the right to adequate
housing for Palestinians. This should include repealing or
amending all legislation that discriminates against
Palestinian refugees who lack citizenship of a recognized
state, including the relevant provisions of Presidential
Decree 11614 of 4 January 1969, as modified by law 296 of 3
April 2001, and any other relevant legislation.
·
Guarantee a degree of security of tenure to everyone within
its jurisdiction, including Palestinian refugees living in
informal gatherings.
· Allow Palestinian refugees to
improve their housing by lifting any remaining restrictions on
the entry of building and maintenance materials and equipment
into Palestinian refugee camps.
· Stop the punitive
demolition by the authorities of the homes or parts of the
homes of Palestinian refugees built in defiance of the ban on
bringing building materials into some camps, and ensure
effective remedies to all those affected, including
restitution, compensation, and guarantees of there being no
further such demolitions.
· Rescind any policy that
prevents Palestinian refugees living in informal gatherings
from improving their homes, abolish any fines or other
penalties for those who seek to make their housing habitable,
and take steps to inform all those concerned of the change in
policy.
· Take steps to ensure minimum essential levels of
sanitation and access to acceptable levels of clean water for
Palestinian refugees living in camps and informal
gatherings.
· Proceed as expeditiously as possible with
plans for rebuilding Nahr al-Bared camp and for alleviating
the conditions in which the refugees forcibly displaced from
there, and others, currently live, particularly in
Beddawi camp.

Employment
· Facilitate the access of
Palestinians to employment in the 50 jobs that were restricted
to them prior to the 2005 announcement by the Minister of
Labour and remove the restrictions on the remaining 20 jobs
and ensure that both relaxations of restrictions are made
permanent in law.

· Amend the provisions of Article 8 of Presidential
Decree 17561 and other relevant legislation that discriminate
against Palestinian refugees.

· Protect the rights at work of everyone within its
jurisdiction, including Palestinian refugees, through the
effective regulation of employment practices of public and
private employers, and specifically ensure that Palestinian
refugees are protected by work contracts and that they receive
fair wages, equal to those paid to their Lebanese
counterparts.

Social security
· Amend or replace Article 9(4)
of the Social Security Law to ensure that all Palestinian
refugees receive social security benefits in return for their
compulsory social security
contributions.

Education
· Ensure that all
children under its jurisdiction, including the children of
non-ID Palestinian refugees, have access to education on an
equal basis with Lebanese nationals.
· Amend Law No. 686
of 1998, which amended Article 49 of Decree No. 134/59, in
order to ensure the right of everyone, including Palestinian
refugee children, to free and compulsory primary education
without discrimination.

Non-ID Palestinian
refugees
· Ensure that no bureaucratic requirements
obstruct the exercise of human rights by all those living
under Lebanese jurisdiction, including non-ID Palestinian
refugees.
· Take all necessary steps to regularize, as
quickly as possible, the status of non-ID Palestinian refugees
in the country. This should include registering all non-ID
Palestinian refugees under Lebanese jurisdiction, providing
them with official identification documents, and ensuring that
all their future children are provided with the necessary
registration and documents.
· Ensure that all Palestinian
refugees are able to register their marriages in Lebanon.

To the international community

· Make all
necessary efforts to find a durable solution for Palestinian
refugees that fully respects and protects their human rights,
including their right to return.
· Provide financial and
technical assistance to Lebanon – in the spirit of
international co-operation and responsibility-sharing – to
enable it to extend the highest possible level of human rights
protection to its Palestinian refugee population. This should
include responding favourably to the Lebanese authorities’ 10
September appeal for funds to rebuild Nahr al-Bared camp and
surrounding areas.
· Ensure that UNRWA has the necessary
funding and mandate to effectively provide for the needs of
Palestinian refugees including by responding favourably to the
10 September joint UNRWA/Lebanese authorities’ appeal for
emergency relief funds to assist those refugees displaced from
Nahr al-Bared camp.

********

(1) http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/lebanon.html,
visited on 14 September 2007

(2) While over 400,000
Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, the
actual figure is probably around 300,000 because up to 100,000
Palestinians are believed to have left Lebanon in search of a
livelihood elsewhere.

(3) There were 127,600
UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in 1950. Most
had lived in the northern and coastal areas of Mandate
Palestine in and around Haifa, Yaffa (Jaffa), Acre, Safad and
Nazareth, all of which became part of the new state of Israel
in May 1948. It is estimated that the Palestinian refugees,
and their descendants, who fled to Lebanon from the West Bank
and Gaza Strip that Israel occupied in the 1967 Israeli-Arab
war now number between 13,000 and 40,000.

(4) The
16-18 September 1982 massacre was carried out by the Lebanese
Forces militia and facilitated by the Israeli army. The report
of an international commission into reported violations of
international law by Israel during its invasion of Lebanon
concluded that 2,750 people in the camps had been
killed.

(5) Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 31 May
2007.

(6) See Amnesty International, Lebanon: Concerns
on fighting between army and Fatah al-Islam group, MDE
18/003/2007, 23 May 2007; Lebanon: Fears for thousands of
refugees caught up in intense fighting, MDE 18/005/2007, 5
June 2007; and Lebanon: Amid reports of harassment at army
checkpoints, continuing concern for civilians affected by
fighting at Palestinian refugee camp, MDE 18/007/2007, 12 July
2007.

(7) See the Preamble to the 1951 Convention
Relating to the Status of Refugees.

(8) International
human rights law calls on states to provide "international
assistance and co-operation, especially economic and
technical" to assist in the realization of economic, social
and cultural rights, ICESCR, Article 2(1).

(9) Lebanon:
Economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees: Submission
to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(AI Index: MDE 18/017/2003).

(10) Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) (Lebanon), UN Doc, CERD/C/64/CO/3, 12
March 2004.

(11) Lebanon: Limitations on rights of
Palestinian refugee children (AI Index: MDE
18/004/2006).

(12) Concluding Observations of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child (Lebanon), UN Doc,
CRC/C/LEB/CO/3, 2 June 2006.

(13) http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/index.html,
visited on 25 September 2007.

(14) The term
"Palestinian refugees" in this report refers to all "Palestine
refugees" residing outside the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT) as well as other Palestinians who are
outside Israel and the OPT and in need of asylum. UNRWA’s
operational definition is: "Palestine refugees are persons
whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June
1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of
livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.
UNRWA’s services are available to all those living in its area
of operations who meet this definition, who are registered
with the Agency and who need assistance. UNRWA's definition of
a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became
refugees in 1948." http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/whois.html,
visited on 21 August 2007.

(15) UNRWA operations
started in 1950.

(16) General Assembly Resolution 194
(III) of 11 December 1948 and UNRWA’s mandate in General
Assembly Resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 emphasize
Palestinians’ right to return. Both Resolutions preceded
negotiations on the Refugee Convention and the UNHCR Statute,
which exclude people who are receiving protection or
assistance from other UN agencies.

(17) A report by the
Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de I'Homme
(FIDH),

Lebanon, Palestinian refugees: systematic
discrimination and complete lack of interest on the part of
the international community, published in March 2003, cites
10,000 as the number of non-registered Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon, as reported by the Palestinian Human Rights
Organization. UNRWA generally uses the figure of 13,000 to
15,000 non-registered Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. A
figure of 16,000 is reported by the US Committee for Refugees
in its Lebanon Country Report (World Refugee Survey 2003). A
report, The Palestinian right to work and own property in
Lebanon, published in April 2003 by the Palestinian Human
Rights Organization, estimated the number of non-registered
Palestinian refugees as 35,000 in addition to 5,000 non-ID
Palestinian refugees. The European Union’s Humanitarian Aid
Office put the number of non-registered Palestinian refugees
in Lebanon as 40,000 in Palestinian Territories: Solidarity
with the victims, http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/pdf_files/leaflets/palestinian_en.pdf.
For non-ID refugees, the Danish Refugee Council cites 3,000
and the Palestinian Human Rights Organization
5,000.

(18) http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/index.html,
visited on 14 September 2007.

(19) However, as part of
the Camp Improvement Initiative (CII) launched by Lebanese
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and UNRWA in late 2005, several
hundred homes in gatherings and villages outside the camps
were repaired and rehabilitated following damage caused to
them in the July-August 2006 conflict between Hizbullah
fighters and Israeli forces. Other projects under the CII
include upgrading camps’ environmental health infrastructure
and their health and education facilities.

(20) UNRWA
figures, see www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/lebanon.html, visited
on 14 September 2007. The figures do not include fluctuations
caused by the displacement of refugees from Nahr
al-Bared.

(21) http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/lebanon.html

(22) See, inter alia, Article 13 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12(4) of the ICCPR
Article, Human Rights Committee General Comment 27 on Article
12, paras 20, 19, Article 5(d)(ii) of International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
Concluding Observations of the Concluding observations of the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Israel)
14 June 2007 UN Doc: CERD.C/ISR/CO/13, at para 18, and various
UNHCR Executive Committee conclusions, including conclusion
no.101 (2004).

(23) Lasting connections between
individuals and territory may exist independently of the
formal determination of nationality (or lack thereof) held by
the individuals, as further explained in General Comments 27
(paragraph 19) of the UN Human Rights Committee, at: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/comments.htm

(24)
See, inter alia, UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of
11 December 1948 and Resolution A/RES/52/59 of December 1997;
see also Amnesty International: The Right to Return: the Case
of the Palestinians: AI Index: MDE 15/013/2001.

(25)
Article 2(1) of the ICCPR; Article 2(2) of the
ICESCR.

(26) Article 2(1)(c) of the ICERD obliges all
state parties "to amend, rescind or nullify any laws and
regulations which have the effect of creating or perpetuating
racial discrimination wherever it exists."

(27) ICESCR,
Article 2(1).

(28) ICESCR, Article 2(3); ICERD, Article
1(2).

(29) CERD, General Recommendation No. 30,
Discrimination against Non-Citizens, 1 October 2004, para
2.

(30) Source: UN Report on Economic Survey
Mission to the Middle East, New York, 1949. p.22 at http://www.badil.org/Statistics/population/03.pdf

(31)
This includes: 408,438 Palestinian refugees registered with
UNRWA; estimates of between 10,000 and 40,000 Palestinian
refugees not registered with UNRWA but registered with the
Lebanese authorities; 3,000-5,000 Palestinians refugees
neither registered with UNRWA nor with the Lebanese
authorities, and allows for the departure of an estimated
several thousand families from Lebanon in recent years who now
live elsewhere. Sources: UNRWA; FIDH; The European Union’s
Humanitarian Aid Office; the Palestinian Human Rights
Organization, the Danish Refugee Council.

(32) Richard
Cook, Director of UNRWA Affairs, Lebanon, March 2007.

(33) Article 11(1) of the ICESCR guarantees, "the
right of everyone to… adequate… housing, and to the continuous
improvement of living conditions."

(34) General Comment
4 "the right to adequate housing" (Article 11(1)), CERD, sixth
session, 1991, para 8. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/469f4d91a9378221c12563ed0053547e?Opendocument

(35) General Comment 4 , op cit, para
8(d).

(36) General Comment 4, op cit, para
7.

(37) General Comment 4, op cit, para 10.

(38)
General Comment 4, op cit, para. 8(a).

(39) Amnesty
International translation from Arabic.

(40) Third
periodic reports of States parties due in 2003 (CRC): Lebanon.
UN Doc. CRC/C/129/Add.7, 25 October 2005, para 474 (emphasis
added).

(41) See also Article 11 of the ICESCR and
Article 27 of the CRC.

(42) Ministry of Labour Decision
No. 621/1, Concerning Businesses and Professions Restricted to
Lebanese, 15 December 1995.

(43) Some 278 permits were
reportedly issued in 2005.

(44) Article 17 of the 1962
Decree states: "The work permit shall be cancelled at any time
if it is revealed that any document is incorrect or as may be
required in the interests of Lebanese labour."

(45)
Ministry of Labour Memorandum (No. 67/1), 2 June 2005. The
original Decree of 1962 still entitles the Ministry of Labour
to list and update annually the jobs that are only open to
Lebanese nationals according to the needs of the Lebanese
market, so the June 2005 ministerial announcement is by nature
temporary until established in law.

(46) These include
the ICESCR (Articles 6 and 7); the CEDAW (Articles 11 and 14);
and the ICERD (Article 5).

(47) ICESCR, Articles 6,
2(1) and 2(2).

(48) Article 2(3) of the ICESCR. The
purpose of this provision was to end the economic domination
of certain groups of non-nationals during colonial times. For
this reason it should be interpreted narrowly. See Limburg
Principles on the Implementation of the ICESCR, UN Doc.
E/CN.4/1987/17, Annex, para 43.

(49) Social Security
Law, Article 9, para 4, applies a similar principle of
reciprocity as the Labour Law.

(50) According to
Article 1 of the ICERD, "the term ‘racial discrimination’
shall mean any distinction, restriction or preference based on
race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has
the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the
recognition, on an equal footing, of human
rights..."

(51) CERD, General Recommendation No. 30,
Discrimination against Non-Citizens, UN Doc.
HRI/GEN/Rev.7/Add.1, para 33.

(52) Non-ID refugees are
not officially entitled to healthcare but if they hold an
expired passport they can access UNRWA health clinics and if
they are registered in another UNRWA field of operation and
have approval from it, they can access certain health
services. Women registered refugees who are married to
non-registered refugees are now fully entitled to receive
health services.

(53) The right to health: Articles
12, ICESCR; 5(e)(iv), ICERD; 24, CRC.

(54) Third
periodic report of States parties due in 2003 (CRC): Lebanon.
UN Doc. CRC/C/129/Add.7, 25 October 2005, para.
477-78.

(55) "More prevalent under poor housing
conditions and poverty, Palestine refugees in Lebanon suffer
from high levels of a wide range of diseases ranging from
psychological to physical. This includes stress, depression
and violence, as well as acute respiratory infections and
other diseases transmitted by infection, such as tuberculosis,
measles, rubella, etc. Improper nutrition emerging from
poverty leads to various non-communicable diseases, such as
high rates of anaemia, poor vision, growth retardation and
other related diseases, the management cost of which is
unavoidable under poor condition." UNRWA Chief of Field Health
Program, Jamil Yusef, to Amnesty International on 28 August
2007.

(56) Third periodic report of states parties due
in 2003 (CRC): Lebanon. UN Doc. CRC/C/129/Add.7, 25 October
2005, para.471, 476.

(57) Social Security Law, Article
9, para.4. Quoted in "Obligation of Host Countries to Refugees
under

International Law: the Case of Lebanon" by Wadie
Said, in Palestinian Refugees: the Right of Return, Naseer
Aruri (ed.). Pluto Press, London, 2001, p.134.

(58)
Third periodic report of States parties due in 2003 (CRC):
Lebanon. UN Doc. CRC/C/129/Add.7, 25 October 2005, para.
477-78, (emphasis added).

(59) This law amended Article
49 of Decree No. 134/59.

(60) CESCR, General Comment 13
"the right to education (art. 13)", 21st session, 1999, UN
Doc: E/C.12/1999/10, para. 59.

(61) Online: http://www.un.org/unrwa/programmes/education/basic.html,
visited on 31 March 2006.

(62) Reportedly, some non-ID
refugee children are able to sit exams due to an informal
arrangement between the Lebanese Ministry of Education and
UNRWA.

(63) Sources: The Danish Refugee Council; the
Palestinian Human Rights Organization

(64) See notes 53
and 63 above.

(65) A large field study conducted
between January and June 2005 that included legal research and
more than 150 refugees being interviewed and completing
questionnaires, http://www.frontiersassociation.org/pubs/FallingThrTheCracks2006PUBFINAL.pdf

(66) Concluding Observations of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child, forty-second session, 2 June 2006, UN
Doc. CRC/C/LEB/CO/3, para 37 and 38.

(67) The Human
Rights Committee has clarified that state parties to the ICCPR
are under the obligation to adopt legislative, administrative
or other measures for ensuring the protection provided for
under Article 23. General Comment 19: Protection of the
family, the right to marriage and equality of the spouses,
para. 3.

AI Index: MDE
18/010/2007

17
October 2007

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