Lebanon's parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment in the modern era. The vote, passed by a majority of Lebanon's 128-seat parliament, marks a landmark moment for human rights in a region where capital punishment remains widespread.
The legislation now awaits the signature of Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, whose government has expressed support for the bill's passage. If signed into law, it will formally end a legal system that has left 84 people on death row — none of whom face execution in a country where no executions have taken place since 2004.
Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, director of Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), the French NGO that has worked closely with Lebanese advocates on the issue, called the vote "a historic breakthrough."
"This is a decision that brings hope and paves the way for a fairer and safer society," Chenuil-Hazan said.
Lebanon has been moving toward abolition for years. A de facto moratorium on executions has been in place for more than two decades, but the formal legal framework kept capital punishment on the books, meaning those on death row lived under the legal shadow of possible execution. The new law closes that chapter definitively — converting a pragmatic pause into a legal commitment.
For human rights organisations, the vote signals a broader shift in public and political attitudes across the Arab world. International advocacy groups have celebrated the move as a potential catalyst for wider reform in a region where conversations about abolition have been quietly gaining momentum.
The vote also represents a rare moment of cross-partisan unity in Lebanon's often fractious political system. Despite the country's complex sectarian landscape, the bill attracted enough parliamentary support to pass — reflecting a genuine consensus that capital punishment no longer reflects Lebanese values or legal principles.
The global trend toward abolition has been accelerating for decades. More than 100 countries have now eliminated the death penalty in law, and a further 28 have not carried out an execution in over a decade. According to Amnesty International, the number of countries that actively carry out executions has fallen year after year. Lebanon's vote adds a powerful new chapter to that story.
As the first country in the Arab world to formally abolish the death penalty, Lebanon is setting a precedent for a region where legal reform on this issue has historically been slow. Even if it takes years for neighbouring countries to follow, the example now exists — proof that a Middle Eastern parliament can debate, vote, and decide that the state should not take lives.
For the 84 individuals currently on death row, the new law opens the path to having their sentences commuted. Lebanese legal advocates have already begun working on how to review their cases under the new legal framework.
Human rights campaigners have been working toward this outcome in Lebanon for over a decade. On the day of the vote, that effort — measured in years of lobbying, legal advocacy, and public education — came to fruition. Lebanon's parliament, in one historic vote, placed itself firmly on the right side of history.
For a country that has faced extraordinary challenges in recent years, this is the kind of milestone that speaks to Lebanon's enduring capacity for moral progress — and to the persistent, patient work of the advocates who made it possible.
