Report | Mahdi Masri

Prevalence of VAWG in Lebanon

Foreword

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) remains alarmingly prevalent and largely underreported in Lebanon.

While comprehensive prevalence data are lacking, available indicators point to widespread abuse. A 2020 UN survey revealed that 43% of Lebanese women, and even 30% of men, personally know a woman who has experienced violence, highlighting how common such incidents are across communities. Multiple crises have further exacerbated the situation in Lebanon. The economic collapse, the Beirut blast, COVID-19, and renewed conflict coincided with a 241% surge in reported domestic violence cases during 2020–2021, compared to the preceding 18 months. During pandemic lockdowns, reports of domestic violence doubled within a matter of months. Femicide has also escalated sharply: 29 women were killed in Lebanon in 2023, representing a 300% increase from the previous year.

Despite these stark figures, underreporting remains pervasive. Survivors often refrain from reporting violence due to social stigma, fear of retaliation, and low trust in authorities. Weak data collection and societal pressure on women to “tolerate” abuse further conceal the magnitude of the problem. As a result, official statistics represent only the “tip of the iceberg.” The entrenched pattern of underreported violence and impunity continues to undermine the safety, dignity, and well-being of women and girls across both countries.

I. Legal Discrimination and Gaps in Protection

Legal frameworks in Lebanon have improved on paper, yet significant discriminatory provisions and protection gaps remain entrenched. Lebanon’s reforms, by contrast, have been piecemeal and riddled with compromises. A domestic violence law (Law No. 293/2014) was enacted in 2014 and modestly strengthened in 2020, but it still suffers from serious loopholes. Under pressure from religious authorities, the law failed to criminalize marital rape and left “honor”-related justifications effectively intact. Lebanon also passed an anti-sexual harassment law in 2020, yet weak enforcement undermines its potential impact.

At the structural level, Lebanon’s personal status laws, administered by religious courts, codify discrimination against women in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. These religion-based codes vary by sect but collectively entrench patriarchal control, ensuring that women’s rights remain contingent rather than guaranteed. Attempts to pass a unified civil personal status law that would guarantee equality in family matters have repeatedly stalled under fierce opposition from religious and political leaders.

Another stark example of entrenched inequality is Lebanon’s nationality law, which denies Lebanese women the right to pass their nationality to their children or foreign spouses—a right granted freely to men. As a result, thousands of children remain stateless, and mothers face systemic barriers in securing basic rights for their families. Lebanon is among a small group of countries globally that still enforce such gender-discriminatory nationality laws, perpetuating generations of legally invisible families.

Gaps in labor protections further compound women’s vulnerability. In Lebanon, labor laws historically excluded large groups of predominantly female workers, such as domestic workers, agricultural laborers, and informal workers. Whilst enforcement is still nascent, for many women outside effective protection, Tunisia recently adopted a Domestic Workers Law (2021) guaranteeing basic rights like a minimum wage and weekly rest. Lebanon, by contrast, has no comprehensive framework for domestic workers. Instead, the kafala (sponsorship) system governs the employment of tens of thousands of migrant women, leaving them excluded from the labor code and exposed to exploitation and abuse with minimal legal recourse, a practice repeatedly condemned by human rights observers.

Beyond domestic work, women’s overrepresentation in the informal sector further deepens their economic insecurity. While women’s labor force participation in Lebanon remains low compared to global standards; as of 2023, the World Bank reported that the labor force participation rate among females was 27.5%, significantly lower than the male participation rate of 65.9%. Women working in Lebanon’s informal sector are particularly vulnerable due to the absence of formal contracts, legal protections, and access to social safety nets. A significant proportion are employed in sectors severely impacted by conflict, such as outdoor manual labor. Data from the Labour Force and Household Living Conditions Survey, conducted by Lebanon’s Central Administration of Statistics in collaboration with the ILO, indicates that in 2018–2019, women accounted for approximately 31% of informal sector workers. The share of informal employment increased from 54.9% in 2018–2019 to 62.4% in 2022. However, ongoing economic challenges and social transformations are likely to have further influenced both the proportion and the conditions of women working in the informal sector in recent years.

In sum, while Lebanon have made important legal strides, entrenched discrimination in personal status codes, nationality laws, and labor protections continues to undermine women’s equality. These legal gaps not only fail to protect women from violence and exploitation but also perpetuate the message that their rights are secondary, sustaining a cycle of inequality that fuels VAWG.

II. Barriers to Justice and Weak Enforcement

Even where protective laws exist, implementation and enforcement remain critically weak.

In Lebanon, women encounter similar barriers. Religious concepts of “honor” and entrenched victim-blaming attitudes often lead officials to minimize violence or blame survivors. High-profile femicide cases underscore these failures. In 2013, Rola Yaacoub was beaten to death by her husband in front of her daughters; it took nine years for the courts to convict him, resulting in only a five-year sentence. In 2021, Zeina Kanjo was strangled by her husband despite having filed multiple domestic violence complaints; authorities had taken no effective protective measures despite clear warning signs. Such cases, widely highlighted by activists, reveal how easily perpetrators exploit systemic weaknesses to evade justice. This pattern has led to Lebanon being described as “failing to protect women and girls”, given the prevalence of impunity and sluggish judicial responses.

Protection mechanisms on paper often do not translate into practice. Lebanese laws provide for restraining orders and victim support, but survivors face major hurdles in accessing them.

Shelters and hotlines, largely run by NGOs, have been overstretched by the combined pressures of economic collapse, pandemic fallout, and renewed conflict. Many women in rural or disadvantaged regions cannot access these services at all. Without safe refuge or financial support, survivors often face the cruel “choice” of remaining with their abusers.

The compounded failure of police, courts, and social services can leave a woman “no alternative” but to remain in a dangerous home, exposing her to continued abuse and even lethal violence. This systemic gap between laws on paper and reality on the ground means that impunity prevails. Perpetrators of VAWG frequently are not held accountable or receive trivial penalties, eroding public confidence in the justice system. For survivors, engaging the legal system can lead to re-traumatization rather than relief, as they navigate a maze of insensitive institutions, delays, and insufficient protection. These enforcement failures send a chilling message to women and girls: that the very institutions meant to protect them may instead dismiss their suffering, thus deterring many from ever seeking justice through formal channels, perpetuating silence, fear and vulnerability.

III. Institutional Gaps in Legal Education and Support

Compounding the broader justice failures, universities and professional legal bodies have not fully mobilized in addressing violence against women and girls (VAWG). Legal education in Lebanon has traditionally lacked a gender lens and practical training on gender-based violence (GBV). Most law faculties do not integrate courses on women’s rights, feminist legal theory, or trauma-informed practice into the core curriculum. As a result, new graduates—women and men alike—enter legal careers without the essential skills to advocate effectively for survivors or to challenge entrenched gender bias within the justice system.

Sector assessments consistently recommend that international human rights law and GBV frameworks be made a compulsory part of legal education. Yet in both countries, such training remains optional, ad-hoc, or donor-driven, rather than embedded within institutional curricula. Courses on gender-sensitive legal ethics and survivor-centered approaches are especially rare, leaving young lawyers ill-prepared to handle cases of domestic abuse, sexual violence, or workplace discrimination with the required sensitivity and expertise.

Moreover, university-based legal clinics, a key mechanism and vital tool for practical learning and community service, are either absent, underdeveloped, or not sustainably supported in both countries. A few universities and NGOs have piloted legal clinics or aid programs (often focusing on refugees or family law issues), however, these initiatives tend to be small-scale, donor-dependent, and unsustainable, as the efforts are reliant on short-term funding.

This represents a missed opportunity in two ways. First, survivors of VAWG and vulnerable women frequently lack access to affordable legal aid, especially outside major cities. Well-resourced university clinics could help fill this gap by providing pro bono legal services, but such initiatives remain extremely limited. Second, without clinic-based training, law students and young lawyers graduate with little exposure to structurally excluded women, such as refugees, ex-prisoners, or women in poverty, missing the chance to develop empathy, problem-solving skills, and a grounded understanding of the systemic barriers these groups face.

The broader legal profession shows similar shortcomings. Few incentives or requirements exist for practicing lawyers, judges, or prosecutors to undertake continuing education on gender justice or survivor-centered approaches. Consequently, this lack of professional development perpetuates blind spots: each year, a new generation of lawyers and officials enters the system unequipped to drive reforms or to provide adequate support for survivors.

Ultimately, universities as critical incubators of future legal professionals—remain underutilized in national efforts to end VAWG. Strengthening legal education to be more gender-responsive, practice-oriented, and rooted in human rights is essential. Institutionalizing legal aid clinics within universities could simultaneously provide students with valuable hands-on experience and expand access to justice for vulnerable women and girls at the grassroots level.

IV. Marginalized Groups and Intersectional Barriers

VAWG in Lebanon is further concentrated among structurally excluded groups, who face intersecting forms of vulnerability. Refugee women and girls are a prime example. Lebanon hosts one of the highest per-capita refugee populations in the world, including an estimated 1.5 million Syrians and hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. These women and girls often live in precarious conditions that heighten the risk of violence (such as crowded camps or informal settlements) while also encountering legal and institutional barriers to protection. Many refugee women lack legal residency or civil documentation, making them fearful that approaching authorities could result in detention or deportation. This de facto exclusion from the formal justice system leaves refugee survivors of domestic or sexual violence with little choice but to rely on under-resourced humanitarian services.

Global data show that GBV is especially prevalent in humanitarian settings, up to 70% of women in crisis contexts experience gender-based violence, double the worldwide average. Field assessments in Lebanon consistently find high levels of domestic violence and child marriage among Syrian refugee communities, driven by economic stress and displacement-related trauma (although exact figures are hard to capture due to underreporting). Refugee women who do come forward often encounter language barriers, discrimination, or simply the absence of services. For instance, shelters and hotline services in Lebanon may not be easily accessible to non-citizens, or refugees may not be aware of their existence. Legal aid for refugees is usually provided by UNHCR or NGOs, but these programs can only assist a fraction of those in need.

Women migrants in the informal sector, especially live-in domestic workers in Lebanon’s kafala system, face similarly dire circumstances. Isolated in private homes and dependent on employers for their legal status, migrant domestic workers (the majority of whom are women from Africa and Asia) have been subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological abuse with impunity. Their exclusion from standard labor protections means they cannot easily report abuse to labor inspectors, and police often treat their cases as contractual disputes rather than violence. This makes migrant women effectively invisible in national GBV statistics and protection frameworks.

Other marginalized groups are also disproportionately affected by both violence and legal barriers. Formerly incarcerated women and girls (including those who survived conflict-related detention or trafficking) face intense stigma in society. After release, they often lack family or community support and may be ostracized, which increases their risk of homelessness, exploitation, or re-victimization. These women seldom benefit from reintegration programs or legal follow-up; their past incarceration can disqualify them from government aid and make authorities less sympathetic to their complaints. Survivors of institutional violence, such as women who endured torture or abuse in prison, psychiatric facilities, or state care, similarly encounter a void in services, there are few, if any, specialized legal or psychological support systems acknowledging their trauma.

Stateless women and girls form another invisible cohort. In Lebanon, the gender bias in nationality law has led to thousands of individuals being stateless (with estimates ranging from 27,000 to over 100,000, many of them children of Lebanese mothers). Stateless women (and daughters of stateless fathers) live in extreme precarity: they have no recognized papers, meaning no access to formal employment, healthcare, education past a certain level, or even the ability to report a crime officially. They are truly “legal ghosts,” which makes them easy targets for violence and exploitation, traffickers, abusive partners, and others can prey on them knowing they have virtually no recourse. Yet stateless women’s plight is not a prominent issue in national GBV strategies, as their existence is often politically sensitive or overlooked.

Even women living in poverty or in remote, rural areas face compounded exclusion. Illiteracy and lack of awareness of rights are higher in these communities, which reinforces legal illiteracy and power imbalances.

Access to justice is weakest for those who need it most: a refugee woman without ID, a stateless mother, a domestic worker confined in an employer’s house, or a woman with a prison record will all struggle far more to get police or courts to take their case seriously, compared to a citizen from a privileged background. This intersectional exclusion means that VAWG is both a cause and a consequence of marginalization. Violence deepens marginalization of survivors (through trauma, injury, or social stigma), and marginalized increases vulnerability to violence, making woman more likely to be victimized and less likely to obtain help.

In summary, the context of Lebanon is marked by pervasive VAWG alongside systemic shortcomings. Lebanon has demonstrated commitment on paper, acceding to international conventions and passing laws to protect women, yet critical gaps between policy and practice remain. Legal discrimination (in personal status, nationality, and labor codes) continues to undermine gender equality and protection, while weak enforcement and insensitive institutions foster impunity and retraumatization. Universities and law faculties, which could be engines of change, have not yet fully integrated gender-sensitive training or outreach, resulting in a pipeline of legal professionals ill-equipped to champion survivors’ rights. And notably, those women and girls who are most “structurally excluded”, by virtue of displacement, detention, statelessness, or informal employment, are effectively locked out of justice and support systems entirely, facing an almost insurmountable barrier to safety and redress.

This complex problem landscape calls for an equally multi-faceted response. It necessitates strengthening legal protections and ensuring their enforcement, empowering marginalized women with knowledge and services, and transforming institutions from the ground up.

The proposed initiative recognizes these needs and responds to the root causes of legal exclusion. By institutionalizing survivor-centered legal clinics in university settings, the project aims to bridge the gap between vulnerable women and the justice system. It will leverage young women law students and legal professionals as allies and advocates, equipping them with the skills to navigate and challenge discriminatory laws.

References

1. LCPS (Lebanese Center for Policy Studies) – Gender, personal-status and nationality reform analysis: https://www.lcps-lebanon.org
2. Beirut Today – Domestic violence trends and femicide reporting in Lebanon (including 2023 figures): https://beirut-today.com
3. The Advocates for Human Rights – Tunisia legal reforms and historical loopholes (marry-your-rapist provisions): https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org
4. Arab Center DC – Analysis of Lebanon’s domestic-violence law and gaps (marital rape, “honor” provisions, enforcement): https://arabcenterdc.org
5. StatelessHub – Lebanon’s gender-discriminatory nationality law and statelessness impacts: https://statelesshub.org
6. OECD – Migrant domestic workers, kafala and GBV risks; Tunisia domestic workers’ protections and informality: https://www.oecd.org
7. IDLO – Justice sector training needs and GBV/international human rights in legal education (Tunisia/Lebanon relevance): https://www.idlo.int
8. UN Women Knowledge Portal – GBV in emergencies prevalence and evidence: https://knowledge.unwomen.org
9. UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION, E/ESCWA/CL6.GCP/2025/2 – The socioeconomic impacts of the 2024 war on Lebanon: https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2025-07/report_socioeconomic-impacts-lebanon-2024-war-english.pdf
10. World Bank – Gender Data – Lebanon: https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/economies/lebanon
11. BLOM Invest Bank Blog – CAS-ILO: Unemployment is at 29.6% and Youth Unemployment at 47.8% in Lebanon by January 2022: https://blog.blominvestbank.com/44347/cas-ilo-unemployment-is-at-29-6-and-youth-unemployment-at-47-8-in-lebanon/

Mahdi Masri

International Human Rights Professional

With over 15 years of experience, Mahdi worked in more than 5 different operations across the Middle East, North Africa and currently South Africa. He holds a Master’s degree in Child Protection Labour Law, with Comparative Studies of Lebanese, Tunisian and French laws in relation to ILO Conventions, and is preparing a PhD in Human Rights