U.S. Mission to International
Organizations in Geneva

23^rd Session, November 2, 2015
As delivered by Michele Roulbet

 The United States welcomes the Lebanese delegation.

We commend Lebanon for its recent efforts to improve access to education for refugee children.

The United States remains concerned about prison and detention center conditions, including some allegations of torture by members of the security personnel at these facilities.

We are also concerned that domestic migrant workers are excluded from the protection of the Labor Code and that the restrictive sponsorship system makes it difficult for them to terminate employment, putting them at risk of exploitation and abuse.

We further note that the structure and implementation of the various personal status codes for Lebanon’s recognized religions may result in gender-discrimination.

We recommend that Lebanon:

1. Improve prison conditions by strengthening preventive measures to protect prisoners from ill-treatment and torture and investigating allegations of abuse.
2. Amend the Labor Code to extend legal protection to domestic workers equal to that afforded to other workers and reform the visa sponsorship system so that workers can terminate employment without sponsor consent.
3. Consider enacting, in consultation with civil society, an optional civil code that takes into account Lebanon’s international human rights obligations.