Lebanon Parliament Abolishes Death Penalty After 22-Year-Long Unofficial Moratorium

On August 11, 2026, the Parliament of Lebanon passed leg­is­la­tion for­mal­ly abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. The country’s abo­li­tion marks the first coun­try in the Middle East to abol­ish the prac­tice and the sec­ond coun­try among the League of Arab States to do so (Djibouti abol­ished in 1995). A major­i­ty of the mem­bers in Lebanon’s 128-seat Parliament vot­ed in favor of this leg­is­la­tion, with Hezbollah’s par­lia­men­tary bloc vot­ing against it. The leg­is­la­tion will now be sent to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, whose gov­ern­ment has pre­vi­ous­ly expressed sup­port for its pas­sage and imple­men­ta­tion. Justice Minister Adel Nassar praised the parliament’s deci­sion, not­ing it is a ​“his­toric step” for Lebanon.

Under this new leg­is­la­tion, the pun­ish­ment of life impris­on­ment with hard labor will replace the death penal­ty. Outside of this leg­is­la­tion, Lebanon retains hard labor as a pun­ish­ment; how­ev­er, the pun­ish­ment has been rarely imple­ment­ed in recent years accord­ing to BBC because of the ​“finan­cial cri­sis and over­crowd­ed pris­ons have lim­it­ed author­i­ties’ resources and capacity.”

Human rights groups praised the Lebanese Parliament’s actions. Dr. Oragit Younan, co-founder of the Lebanese Association for Human Rights, who led a near­ly three-decade cam­paign for abo­li­tion, told BBC, ​“We can­not solve a crime with a crime or end vio­lence with vio­lence.” Dr. Younan added that Lebanon is ​“in a war, and peo­ple [have been] killed every day, so even in this sit­u­a­tion, we can fight, we can strug­gle for human rights, and we can win. We can be a mod­el for oth­ers.” Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef, approved of parliament’s deci­sion, say­ing that ​“Lebanon’s deci­sion to abol­ish the death penal­ty marks a major mile­stone and a vic­to­ry for human rights in the coun­try. Justice must be root­ed in human rights, not in an irre­versible and cru­el pun­ish­ment.” Ms. Morayef added, “[a]fter more than two decades with­out exe­cu­tions, today’s step trans­forms a pre­car­i­ous hia­tus in exe­cu­tions into last­ing legal pro­tec­tion uphold­ing the right to life and bring­ing Lebanon in line with the glob­al trend toward abolition.

Lebanon last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 2004, with the exe­cu­tions of three men — two by fir­ing squad and one by hang­ing. Before these exe­cu­tions, the Lebanese gov­ern­ment car­ried out the exe­cu­tions of two men in 1998, both of whom were hanged pub­licly. Prior to pass­ing this leg­is­la­tion, Lebanon autho­rized the death penal­ty for more than three dozen crimes, includ­ing trea­son, ter­ror­ism, and inten­tion­al homi­cide, with exe­cu­tions to be car­ried out by fir­ing squad or hang­ing. Despite a 22-year unof­fi­cial mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, Lebanese courts con­tin­ued to hand down death sen­tences, with one new death sen­tence hand­ed down in 2025. Any exe­cu­tions in Lebanon need­ed autho­riza­tion from the Minister of Justice, Prime Minister and President. Data from the Ministry of Justice indi­cates there were 85 pris­on­ers under sen­tences of death in December 2025.

With the pas­sage of this leg­is­la­tion, Lebanon will become the 114^th coun­try to abol­ish the death penal­ty, accord­ing to Amnesty International.