At the political level, the concept of freedom may be taken as a starting point, as some policies are founded on suppressing freedoms, and intellectual and political speech, and subjecting them to the terms and whims, as well as the trends and interests of the state. In addition, some groups are excluded from the exercise of certain civil or political rights, without paying heed to their human rights that begin at birth and that are guaranteed in international treaties and conventions, and which include the freedom of speech and expression, and the right to a nationality. On the social level, civil peace is based on the rejection of marginalization, violence and coercion; accepting diversity and difference; treating different people in a peaceful and civilized manner; and equality among all residents on the territory of the state, whether citizens, foreigners or even stateless.
Thus, there is direct correlation between the concepts of political and social stability and the concept of civil peace. For civil peace is the cornerstone of a politically and socially stable state, one that is capable of progress and development, and where all segments of society participate in political, economic and social decisions, and in drawing up national plans.
Accordingly, an organic relation is established between civil peace and the absence of marginalization in all its forms.
If we take the Lebanese case, we find that multiple categories in society–such as homosexuals, street children, ex-prisoners, and battered women–suffer from marginalization at the political, social and legal levels, a fact that turns the spotlight on civil peace. How can a state with a large portion of those residing on its territory marginalized and excluded from participation in public life and from exercising their fundamental rights, which establish the individual’s entity within the state, build or achieve civil peace? How can a society that is built on a fragile balance and rejects difference, if not fears it, live in an atmosphere of true civil peace?
In Lebanon, «national» political participation is built on communal, sectarian or factional affiliations or loyalty to a leader. Each outsider to any such affiliation would not find a real place in the entities existing within it, since he belongs to the entity built on his denomination, if we were to consider the differences among the citizens; differences that in themselves create a rift in any true understanding of civil peace.
There are in Lebanon today, besides the Lebanese, hundreds of thousands of refugees who have come to Lebanon in pursuit of security and a decent life. They suffer from social discrimination and a negative and scornful attitude, compounded and exacerbated by their increasing numbers, while the Lebanese state fails to regulate their influx into its territory. The policy of «absence of a policy» that has been applied in dealing with this phenomenon so far is a reflection of the weakness and vulnerability of the system as a whole, where this approach is subject to all political whims and a sectarian and demographic equilibrium that surface at every mention of ensuring minimum rights for refugees. What is more, these refugees are now being used to deprive the Lebanese of certain rights, with the most striking example being fears of granting Lebanese women the right to give citizenship to her family on the pretext that this would open the way for granting Lebanese citizenship to hundreds of thousands of refugees, and if we are to give women this right, we should exclude those married to Syrian or Palestinian refugees! Is this not marginalization? Of refugees or Lebanese women, or both?
Marginalization also affects the refugees’ legal status and their chances of living in freedom and security, in light of Lebanon’s state policy of even greater restrictions on their entry into Lebanon and their legitimate stay. This policy has led many refugees to resort to illegal entry, smuggling in inhumane conditions, or become illegal immigrants because of residency requirements and costs. So they are joining the marginalized groups that cannot take in part public life, and have to hide and live in fear and marginalization.
In addition to the arriving refugees, the individuals who have been living in this country for decades or even centuries, but are not citizens and do not enjoy any nationality, are in the same boat. They are exposed to all forms of discrimination, ostracism and exclusion, as they do not enjoy the basic rights that would allow them to integrate into the fabric that participation is built on within the factional structure, the fact which contributes to their marginalization and exclusion from public affairs and from defending their rights or even claiming them, as a rights-based participatory approach is absent under the pressure of marginalization and discrimination.
People who do not hold any nationality in Lebanon or any other records, known as maktoum al-qayd (MAQ) or whose dossiers are qayd ad dars, i.e. «under study», are persons belonging to a class that was and remains forgotten by the state, a state which has never included the abolishment of statelessness in its political agenda. This is the case despite the fact that statelessness in Lebanon goes back in time as far as the creation of the Lebanese nationality and despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the stateless have strong and deep ties to Lebanon–not least of which being born in it–to ancestors who hold its nationality, or were present in it when the state and its nationality were created, or are born to mothers who hold its nationality. Moreover, their cause has remained absent from all policies and governments, and even the agendas and priorities of the civil society and public opinion. Can there be any greater marginalization?
This marginalization is exacerbated by the fact that any effort to develop policies, laws or procedures, if put forward, remain confined to the Lebanese, and do not include all those residing in Lebanon who are equal to them in terms of duties, if not with additional duties imposed on them by not considering them «citizens» in the narrow sense of the word, which is still in application in Lebanon today. This narrow concept is still applied to people who hold the Lebanese citizenship, as the Lebanese do not enjoy the rights of political and civic participation outside their place of registration or qayd, regardless of their place of actual residence or the duration of their residence there, in addition to the condition of belonging to the predominant sectarian category in this place, as the sectarian political structure works to marginalize all other groups. At a time when many countries around the world have adopted a broader understanding of the concept of citizen, which is based on residency and participation in duties and in public life, regardless of whether the resident holds the citizenship of the country or is registered in his actual place of residence. If this is the case of the Lebanese inside this old and outdated political and administrative system, what about the residents who do not hold the Lebanese nationality? Is it possible to imagine a system or a policy more marginalizing than this?
Add to that marginalization that the Lebanese state, which has never accorded priority to the issue of statelessness, has not ratified the international conventions that guarantee the rights of stateless persons, and has not put in place policies and legal frameworks to provide them with protection and grant them rights. They are as if non-existent before the law, lack any legal status or identification documents, and are deprived of the possibility of exercising many of their fundamental rights. And the absence of a legal protection framework and rights puts them in a fragile position, open to exploitation and serious violations, thus they may be classified as an extremely vulnerable and marginalized population.
The stateless, as a result of being deprived of many of their rights, belong to economically disadvantaged social categories, since they cannot work in many fields, including the liberal professions, and, of course, cannot hold public office, and as a result many of them lack the incentive that would prompt them to look for opportunities to develop their living, educational and social status. This contributes to further marginalization.
This situation is not limited to official policies or the neglect of the state, but goes beyond that to include social marginalization and discrimination, as the society and public opinion are either not aware of their existence, or perceive them negatively, reducing them to the category of those «who could pose a threat to national security because they are ignored and neglected by the state, and are susceptible to recruitment by terrorist or extremist movements or at least susceptible to delinquency». If this fear rings true for some, and can be seen as a red flag, policy-makers and the society have to pay heed to it to lift some of its members out of these dangers. Nevertheless, the society’s dealing with the stateless should not be reduced to this. The society should provide a supportive environment for them and provide them with the possibility of making their voices heard and claiming their rights, to make their way out of the state of marginalization, instead of increasing their marginalization.
We only talked of two «marginalized» categories in Lebanon, as a result of politics and the attitude of the society. But it must be emphasized that these are not isolated categories, but rather other people who suffer from different forms of marginalization and exclusion can be added to them, with the space provided for this article not enough to present their situations. In addition, the marginalization of the discussed categories is extreme, as it is at the point of denial.
So, to conclude, if civil peace is founded primarily on the absence of marginalization and if the Lebanese society includes categories that can at best be called marginalized at all levels, how can Lebanon build and promote civil peace? And how can we talk of civil peace in light of a policy that pursues marginalization and deepens its problems, rather than working to put an end to it?
1 - For more information on this phenomenon, see the study «Invisible Citizens: Humiliation and Life in the Shadows», Frontiers Ruwad Association, available on
www.frontiersruwad.wordpress.com
2 - Frontiers Association, Statelessness in Lebanon – Submission in View of Lebanon’s Second Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council,
https://frontiersruwad.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/statelessness-in-lebanon-submissiom-in-view-of-lebanons-second-universal-periodic-review-by-the-human-rights-council/
Berna Habib * Statelessness project Coordinator, «Ruwad Houkouk» Association
Samira Trad ** Director of «Ruwad Houkouk» Association