Cooperation protocol between OWAP and the Tripoli Bar Association

The Orthodox Welfare Association for Prisoners, represented by Father Basilios Debs, and the Tripoli Bar Association, represented by its President Sami Mereb Al-Hassan, signed a cooperation protocol. Present were members of the association: Father Antony Kossa and Maîtres George Rizk, May Haddad, Rim Al-Lakis, Dr Mariam Ishac and Walid Al-Homsi; the Bar's treasurer, Maître Ibrahim Harfouch, and Maître Elisabeth Al-Sarraf; as well as former President of the Beirut Bar, Maître George Jreij.

President Al-Hassan stressed the sacred right of every prisoner and detainee to a defence, and the duty to help those who cannot afford a lawyer, in keeping with the noble mission of the legal profession. This protects rights that are at risk of being violated, through the Bar's Human Rights Institute, its Legal Aid and Legal Assistance Centre and its Prisoner Rights Centre. He emphasised the need for cooperation among all bodies of Lebanese society, in the hope of Lebanon's revival and of truth prevailing with the support of clergy and jurists, towards the first goal: a state governed by the rule of law, with the same standards of treatment and accountability for all, and a stronger sense of one shared life in Lebanon.

Father Basilios Debs then spoke:

"We are glad today to meet the President of the Tripoli Bar, who strives for justice in a country lacking the most basic human rights, where the homeland has become an exile and the state an executioner, and where freedom rests only with people of principle who seek justice and peace. Sadly, they are few. Here we are in this edifice where justice sits on its throne to pronounce the final word between right and wrong, with a vision different from what others see or judge. Applying the law is not a sword that cuts down evil. In its depth, it is an education that seeks to reveal the essence of the human being. It is from this starting point that the Orthodox Welfare Association for Prisoners meets the Bar in launching a programme of awareness, guidance and rehabilitation for every member of society, and of respect for human rights. We are happy to share our concerns for the inmates who need help.

We also urgently ask all the ministries concerned to speed up the trials of those held in pre-trial detention and of those who have languished in prison for many months without trial, and to release the innocent and the wronged. We ask that prisoners be separated into prisons according to their sentences, and that prisons be rehabilitated so as to guarantee their rights as human beings in health and care.

God willing, we will continue to work with the Bar Association, represented by its President Al-Hassan, on the path of justice and of providing legal aid to those who need it, and in the work of awareness aimed at forming a new generation that knows the ways of good, so that the words may apply to it: 'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.'"

Maître Jreij spoke about the history of the Beirut and Tripoli Bar Associations and of Lebanon, stressing the need for all parts of society to stand together in the service of citizens and to elect a President of the Republic who will restore the proper functioning of institutions.