Lebanon

Article 8

Personal freedom is guaranteed and protected by the law. No one can be arrested, jailed or suspended except according to the rules of the law. No offense can be determined and no penalty can be imposed except according to the law.

Article 12

Every Lebanese has the right to public employment, without any distinction, except on qualification and merit according to the conditions laid down by the law. A special code shall be established to safeguard the rights of employees in the areas to which they belong.

THE LEBANESE CONSTITUTION 1926 (REV. 2004) (PDF)

Article 524 (new)

A person who, to appease the whims of another, takes action to tempt or lure another person or have him removed or taken away with his consent shall be punished by imprisonment for at least one year and payment of a fine that shall not be less than half the value of the official minimum wage.

Article 525 (new)

A person who detains another person without his consent in a house of prostitution because of a debt to be paid shall be punished by imprisonment from two months to two years and payment of a fine that could be from one tenth of the official minimum wage to the full value of said wage.

Article 569. Deprivation of personal freedom and using the person to perform a task

Deprived of his or her personal liberty by abduction or any other means, shall be punished by temporary hard labor.

The perpetrator shall be punished with hard labor in each of the following cases:

1 – If the period of deprivation of liberty exceeds the month.

2 – If he is deprived of his freedom of physical or mental torture.

3 – If the offense was committed against an employee while performing his duties or in the course of his performance, or because of his belonging to it.

Of the victim to an act committed by another sect or

4 – If the motives of the crime sectarian or partisan or revenge against his or her relatives.

5 – If the perpetrator used his victim as a hostage to intimidate individuals, institutions or the State in order to extort money

Coercion to carry out a desire or to do or abstain from doing so.

To attack one of the private or public transport means such as a car or train

6 – If the offender has been caught on any ship or aircraft.

7 – If the offense was committed by a group of two or more persons, they were armed.

The penalty shall be increased by 257 if the death resulted from the death of a person as a result of terror or any other reason related to the substance

In the incident.Article 586.1

Trafficking in Persons is:

1. A) luring, transporting, receiving, detaining, or finding shelter for a person;
2. B) by using force or threatening to use force against someone who is subject to one’s power; by kidnapping or deceiving another person; by using one’s power against another person or exploiting that person’s vulnerability; by giving or receiving sums of money or benefits; and by utilizing such methods against another person who is subject to perpetrator’s authority;
3. C) for the purpose of exploiting said other person or facilitating his exploitation by others.

The consent of a victim shall be given no consideration in case any of the methods shown in this Article are utilized.

Victim of Trafficking:

For the purposes of this law a victim of trafficking means any natural person who was the subject of trafficking in persons or who is reasonably considered by the competent authorities to be a victim of trafficking in persons, regardless of whether the perpetrator of the crime [of trafficking in persons] was identified, arrested, tried, or convicted.

According to the provisions of this Article, compelling a person to participate in any of the following acts shall be considered exploitation:

1. A) Acts that are punishable by law;
2. B) Prostitution or exploitation of the prostitution of others;
3. C) Sexual exploitation;
4. D) Begging;
5. E) Slavery or practices that resemble slavery;
6. F) Forcible or compulsory work;
7. G) This includes the forcible or mandatory recruitment of children to use them in armed conflicts;
8. H) Forcible involvement in terrorist acts;
9. I) Selling organs or tissue from the victim’s body.

Consideration shall not be given to the consent that is given by the victim to exploitation that is to be committed and is indicated in this paragraph; nor shall consideration be given to the consent to such exploitation that is given by one of the victim’s forefathers, legal guardian, or any other person who exercises legal or actual authority over the victim. Luring, transporting, receiving, detaining, or providing shelter to victims who are under eighteen years of age for the purpose of exploiting them shall be considered trafficking in persons even if such activities were not accompanied by any of the methods indicated in Paragraph (1) (B) of this Article.

Article 586.2

The penalty for [a perpetrator of] the crime stipulated in Article 586.1 shall be according to the following:

1- Imprisonment for five years and payment of a fine that can be from one hundred to two hundred times the official minimum wage if these actions were carried out in return for sums of money or any other benefits or the promise to grant or receive such sums or benefits.

2- Imprisonment for seven years and payment of a fine that can be from one hundred and fifty times to three hundred times the official minimum wage if these actions were carried out by using deception, violence, harsh acts or threats or by spending money on the victim or on a member of his family

Article 586.3

The penalty for a perpetrator of the crime stipulated in Article 586.1 shall be imprisonment for ten years and payment of a fine that can be from two hundred to four hundred times the official minimum wage if said perpetrator, partner, accomplice, or instigator to the crime is:

1- A public official or any person charged with providing a public service, or a director of an employment office or an employee of such an office.

2- One of the victim’s legal or non-legal forefathers, one of the members of his family, or any person who exercises legal authority or actual direct or indirect authority over the victim.

Article 586.4

The penalty for the crime stipulated in Article 586.1 shall be imprisonment for fifteen years and payment of a fine that can be from three hundred to six hundred times the official minimum wage if said crime was committed by:

1- A group of two or more persons committing criminal acts in Lebanon or in more than one country.

2- If the crime involved more than one victim.

Article 586.5

If any of the following conditions are present, criminal acts that are mentioned in Article 586.1 shall be punishable, and punishment shall be imprisonment from ten to twelve years and payment of a fine that can be from two hundred to four hundred times the official minimum wage:

1. A) When the crime involves serious harm to the victim or to another person or when it involves the death of a victim or another person, including death as a result of suicide.
2. B) When the crime involves a person who is in a state of special vulnerability, including pregnancy.
3. C) When the crime exposes the victim to a life-threatening disease, including the HIV virus and the AIDS virus.
4. D) When the victim is physically or mentally disabled.

E) When the victim is under the age of eighteen.

PENAL CODE (AS AMENDED BY LAW NO 164 PUNISHMENT FOR THE CRIME OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS) (PDF)

Article 11

No one may commit himself by any work covenant for his lifetime, nor pledge himself for his lifetime not to engage in a given profession. Any covenant which would directly or indirectly lead to these effects is void as a matter of right, irrespective of its form.

Article 15

No employer, man or woman, bachelor, widow, separated or divorced may accommodate in his lodging a minor on his service.

Article 22

It is absolutely forbidden to set to work adolescents who have not yet completed their thirteenth year of age. An adolescent may only begin to work after a medical examination to ascertain that he can carry out the work for which he was hired.

Article 31

Forty-eight hours is the maximum duration of work per week in the different categories listed in article 5, except the agricultural corporations.

Article 33

It is permissible to derogate to the requirements of article 31 in cases of emergency and to raise the duration of work to twelve hours a day on the condition that:

1 – The requirements of paragraphs 2 and 3 or article 23 are observed;

2 – The Social Affairs Service is informed within 24 hours of the intervening case and of the time necessary to perform the work;

3 – That the wage or salary from the overtime provided by the wage-earner or salary-earner is 50% higher than the rate of normal wages.

Article 44

The minimum pay must be sufficient to meet the essential needs of the wage-earner or salary-earner and his family, with due consideration to the nature of the work. Pay is not to be less than the official minimum pay.

LABOUR CODE (PDF)

Regulating offices that recruit foreign domestic servants. This latter decree states that the head of the household shall undertake to provide clothing, food, medication, an acceptable place for the female servant to sleep and rest, to pay the monthly salary at the end of each month and to provide the necessary assistance for the transfer of her salary abroad, when requested. He shall also undertake to give her adequate periods of rest and not mistreat her, under threat of prosecution. The decree adds that those responsible for, or employees of, recruitment offices are forbidden to beat female servants and, in the event of disputes between them and employers or servants or between the latter two, they must inform the Ministry of Labour of the matter and submit a complaint, if necessary. In all cases, the Department of Labour Inspection in Beirut and the provinces shall be responsible for monitoring the activity of recruitment offices and must submit a detailed report on each office every six months. Complaints and petitions relating to disputes between employers and servants or between one of these parties and recruitment offices must be presented to the Department of Employment in Beirut or the provinces and referred to the competent ministerial authorities for the necessary decision to be taken.

Lebanon Trafficking in Persons Law (PDF)