The international response to last month's Beirut port explosion must ensure rights are protected so people can have a say in needed reforms for the country, the UN human rights chief said on Wednesday.
Michelle Bachelet said international powers and the “new government in Lebanon, once established, must collectively place human rights at the centre of a short-term response and a long-term recovery".
Ms Bachelet was addressing a panel organised by the Beirut Institute Summit, a day after Lebanon’s political class failed to form a government before a deadline agreed to with French President Emmanuel Macron two weeks ago.
She said reforms “should realise, not undermine, the right of the population".
People probably feel that they do not have the spaces to have their voices heard
Lebanon’s finances began a meltdown in the last three months of 2019 as the credit ratings deteriorated and bans on foreign currency withdrawals were imposed to stop a run on the banks.
The value of the Lebanese pound tumbled and the government defaulted on its foreign debt in March this year.
Mr Macron has been in Beirut twice since the explosion at Beirut port on August 4, promoting a political initiative and promising aid in return for reforms, and for endorsing a candidate France backed for prime minister.
The ammonium nitrate explosion killed at least 190 people and showed the official dysfunction in Lebanon since the end of the civil war in 1990.
Beirut port blast in pictures
But independent Lebanese figures have warned that Mr Macron was putting proposed reforms at the mercy of Hezbollah by agreeing with them to name a prime minister widely considered to be weak.
Mustapha Adib, a diplomat who received approval from the traditional political players in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, has little independent backing and no members of Parliament.
Mr Adib was given the task of forming a government on August 31 but has yet to announce any progress.
Mr Adib is a protege of Sunni billionaire and former prime minister Najib Mikati.
Under Lebanon’s sectarian political system, the prime minister has to be Sunni, the president a Maronite Christian and the parliamentary speaker Shiite.
The last prime minister, Hassan Diab, resigned after the port explosion.
Under Mr Diab's tenure, which started in January, the authorities tried to pass reforms to salvage the economy, handle the Covid-19 pandemic and placate a popular uprising that began in October.
The movement demanded the total removal of the political class.
Ms Bachelet, who was the president of Chile for two terms, said it was critical “that human rights are integrated into the emergency response to address the needs of all affected population".
“The authorities must ensure the protection of the rights of peaceful assembly, expression and opinion,” she said.
At recent protests, security officers have opened fire with live ammunition and several protesters have been badly wounded.
“People probably feel that they do not have the spaces to have their voices heard and to be really able to influence the process,” Ms Bachelet said.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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What's in the deal?
Agreement aims to boost trade by £25.5bn a year in the long run, compared with a total of £42.6bn in 2024
India will slash levies on medical devices, machinery, cosmetics, soft drinks and lamb.
India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
Indian employees in the UK will receive three years exemption from social security payments
India expects 99% of exports to benefit from zero duty, raising opportunities for textiles, marine products, footwear and jewellery
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