UN spokesman calls Lebanon a failed state

Through his Twitter account, De Shutter revealed that the destructive actions of political and financial leaders are a violation of human rights and that the majority of the Lebanese people condemn poverty.

The expert report points out that impunity, corruption and structural inequality have transformed the political and economic system today into one in four Lebanese living in poverty.

In view of the parliamentary elections on May 15, the Special Rapporteur urged the next government to place accountability and transparency “at the heart and center of its actions.”

He stressed that political connections were pervasive in the banking system, which had led to the wastage of national wealth through decades of mismanagement and investment.

At trial, De Schutter said the central bank had led the Lebanese government to protect the rich while at the same time destabilizing poor families.

“Public services, including electricity, education and health care, have been destroyed, exacerbating inequality,” the text said.

Without a census since 1932, multidimensional poverty in the country has almost doubled between 2019 and 2021, affecting 82 percent of the population last year.

In this sense, the UN expert explained that as a result of the administrative and legal measures imposed by the Lebanese government, 88 percent of the Palestinian and Syrian refugees in the country are living in conditions of minimal survival.

De Schutter called on the incoming government to put public interests above private interests and to work for the reduction of inequality and the fight against corruption and impunity.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, blamed the United States for the worst financial and economic crisis in Lebanon’s history.

“Preventing the Lebanese from creating a real and sustainable economy was derived from the siege of Washington,” Hashem Safi al-Din, chairman of the executive committee of the Party of God, said in a speech.

However, opposition with models to get out of the current bad moment is popular, political, cultural and social.

acl / yma