Lebanon's Law 293/2014 and 2020 Amendments — Domestic Violence Protection Orders, with Implementation Still Incomplete

Law 293/2014 on the Protection of Women and Other Family Members from Domestic Violence was passed by the Lebanese Parliament in April 2014 after a long civil-society campaign led by KAFA, and promulgated in May 2014. It criminalises domestic violence, provides for urgent protection orders issued by Judges for Urgent Matters, and provides for a specialised domestic-violence division within the Internal Security Forces.
In December 2020 Parliament amended the law (Law 204/2020): the definition of family violence was broadened to cover economic violence, protection orders were extended to more children, tougher penalties were introduced and a fund to support victims and rehabilitate perpetrators was established.
Evidence of results is limited and mixed. The ICJ's 2020 guidance for criminal-justice actors, based on 37 judicial decisions and 24 protection orders, notes that protection orders are not publicly available, that definitions in the law led courts to diverging interpretations, and that marital rape is not criminalised as such. LCPS reports that the specialised ISF family-violence unit and the victims' fund were still pending. No outcome data on reduced violence were found.
The case is valuable as a documented example of civil-society-drafted legislation and iterative amendment, and as a cautionary one on the gap between statute and implementation.

Read the full analysis: https://www.lcps-lebanon.org/en/articles/details/4914/strengthening-protections-an-analysis-of-violence-against-women-legislation-in-lebanon