In a country affected by multiple problems and continuous crises – financial, political and social – violence against women continues to receive neither the attention nor the necessary political reaction. The social context, deeply centered on family and patriarchal clans, hinders the visibility of this problem, while domestic abuse continues to grow.

In the last 12 months, the number of domestic violence incidents increased from 747 to 1,468, according to statistics collected by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF).  This increase, attributed to the country’s economic and financial crisis and the United Nations’ so-called “shadow pandemic”, in reference to the coronavirus, is an entrenched scourge in Lebanese society.

In recent years, the demands of numerous social groups have achieved significant, but still insufficient, progress. In December, Lebanon amended its domestic violence law to criminalize abuse “resulting” from marriage. Despite this, the updated legislation does not clearly cover violence against divorced women, nor does it criminalize marital rape, nor does it prevent discrimination against women in divorce and child custody disputes.

Most of these crimes remain silenced within the family, while the cases that do make it into the public eye suffer from the perpetuated culture of victim-blaming.

Through our Community Policing project and thanks to the support provided by the Family and Women’s Care Unit (UFAM) of the CNP, we are helping to improve police investigation and care for victims of domestic violence in Lebanon.

We are promoting the creation of the Domestic Violence Unit within the ISF and the assignment of at least two police officers trained in victim care and investigation of these types of crimes in the 12 territorial police stations in the country. We want to ensure that there are female police officers to attend to victims, as currently there are only men, and we aspire to provide more comprehensive care to all victims, institutionalizing the provision of social, health, psychological and legal services to all victims.

With the strong commitment of our entire Community Policing team and the support of the Lebanese police, we will continue to fight domestic violence and train police officers to improve care and service to all victims.

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