About Us
Trusted Since 1998
Since 1998, the Association of Justice and Mercy (AJEM) has been visiting all penitentiaries in Lebanon and providing counseling to all the prisoners in their varied locations. This access has also given us opportunities to organize and conduct individual and collective interventions with the incarcerated population and to work on several programs and projects throughout the years.
Our Mission & Values
AJEM teams conduct monthly visits to all prisons in Lebanon. The number of visits to each location varies depending on the number of prisoners incarcerated and the number of newly and recently detained people. Upon the team’s arrival to the prison, the administration gives them a list with the names of the new detainees, which allows the team to organize, plan, and meet individually with each incarcerated person to identify their personal, social, psychological, and legal needs as well as any personal or physical violation they might have experienced during the arrest and their imprisonment.
UNHCR project (2009 – 2018)
The mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to help refugees and asylum seekers in Lebanon and around the world. In partnership with AJEM, the UNHCR launched a project that serves refugees and asylum seekers incarcerated at the Roumieh central prison in Lebanon.
This project was set up with the UNHCR in 2009 for a period of one year and has been renewed twice since then. The UNHCR provides most of the funds which are necessary to the execution of the program, while AJEM provides the personnel and the know-how. Furthermore, AJEM completes the budget of the project. Objectives are reset by both entities every year.
Refugees and asylum seekers are extremely vulnerable individuals in the Lebanese population. The situation is even more critical for those of them who are arrested and incarcerated. In fact, these isolated and deprived individuals face tremendous difficulties to obtain new clothes, complementary foods, etc.… which are usually provided by the prisoners’ families during visits. Sometimes, they find themselves under the obligation to sell their very few possessions to other detainees. Finally, it is often difficult for their families, being so remote, to visit them in prison.
Therefore, the program aims at helping refugees and asylum seekers to benefit from detention conditions that are at least equivalent to those of other detainees. This consists in giving them access to health care and providing them with basic material goods, social monitoring, legal assistance and psychological support. The mental health of refugees is also a focus of work of AJEM in this project.
RDPP project (2017 – 2018)
Forced displacement is one of the most stressful human experiences. Refugees and asylum seekers in Lebanon are exposed at high risks of human rights violations. In addition, they encounter many stress factors on the social, economic, educational and livelihood levels. Some of the vulnerable groups of the refugees can even perpetrate crimes thus, have conflicts with the law. The complex history between Lebanese and Syrians, the unstable political situation in Lebanon, the huge number of forced displaced Syrians and the economic crisis have made the situation very arduous. Many Syrians have illegally or with falsified identity entered Lebanon seeking refuge and decent living conditions. Being afraid to contact any responsible agency to regularize their status, they are often arrested for their illegal stay. Thus, the lack of the legal status of the heads of families, has accentuated the distress of the refugees exposing them to protection risks among others like poverty and recourse to acts against the law (theft, drug trafficking, prostitution etc.).
The set of activities under this project aims at improving the situation of the target groups as well as the final beneficiaries. The Syrian refugees will have increased knowledge and awareness on their rights and other legal matters and they will have access to legal service whereas their capacity to assign private lawyer is very limited. The families of Syrian refugees in detention will receive support in accessing services through the active role of AJEM in referring cases to other organizations working with refugees and through the feedback mechanism that will be established to track the receipt of the service and the improvement of the family situation. This activity also allows to maintain the contact between the family and the detained person which alleviates the stress and reduce deterioration caused by the detention event. The violations and malpractices will be monitored in order to reduce or prevent them and also to readjust the access to justice and fair trial. Therefore, the other target groups including judges and general prosecutors, the Internal Security Forces, the General Security Forces and the municipalities who are directly involved with the Syrian refugees will be addressed through advocacy work which helps in ensuring protective factors for the Syrian refugees in general.
Harm reduction projects
Drug use is prohibited in Lebanon and is a crime according to legislation. Therefore, many drug users are arrested and sent to prison yearly. The latter has disastrous consequences on them and drives them to seek and try new drugs and other substitutes. The social background of these vulnerable individuals doesn’t usually help them to get out of prison. Unemployment, inactivity, and friends who take drugs and offer some to them, constitute many unfavorable factors to a true social and professional reintegration. The risk of relapse is considerable without the crucial support of one’s own family and friends. Important progress is to be made when it comes to all societal actors to solve this issue appropriately. Our projects aim at facilitating the social and professional integration of drug users incarcerated in Lebanese prisons, by giving them access, during their detention, to adequate services that are appropriate for their medical, psychological, social, and legal needs and by working on the societal criteria that would promote their reintegration (working with the families, neighborhoods, policy-makers, etc.)Within the framework of the Harm reduction projects, AJEM implements HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care activities among key populations. It provides VCT voluntary counseling and testing service in Lebanese prisons (Central and regional), organizes Information Education and Communication (IEC) sessions for key populations in prisons on HIV and other transmissible diseases, provides multidisciplinary support for people at risk in prisons (health, psychological, legal, social and criminology services). It also provides an Opioid substitution treatment (OST) program in its offices outside prison and works with families of drug users to help accompany and support them inside and outside prison. In addition to training Internal Security Forces on harm reduction, training NGOs working in prisons on harm reduction, conducting research on drug use and transmissible diseases within the prisons, while being an active member of the Multi-Sectorial Task Force for HIV prevention in prison settings. In light of the prisoners’ needs and the short comings of the Lebanese system when it comes to defending the rights of vulnerable people, and in the continuous aim for Harm Reduction outside prisons, Ajem Rabieh Shelter (ARS) was founded in 2012.
AJEM Rabieh Shelter (2012 – present)
ARS is a transitional housing program that can serve up to 30 men for now. It aims to provide individuals with comprehensive supportive services which will enable them to return to independent living, to obtain employment and permanent housing. Currently providing a safe and stable place to ex-prisoners, homeless men and to refugees through their transition back into society to ensure a smooth social reinsertion, ARS is a supportive and stable environment helping former inmates regain confidence to reconnect, with family, society and its prejudices and find a job to sustain themselves independently. In addition to providing basic needs (food, laundry, medicines…), ARS accompanies the residents through daily activities promoting autonomy, ensuring activities during the day at the shelter, such as discussions, therapeutic groups, art, workshops, organizing professional workshops (carpentry, agronomy…) that will allow them to stay active and interact with others and with the community in order to prepare them to find a permanent employment. It also followis up on patients of the Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) (Once a week, the Ajem Rabieh Shelter provides out-patient services for people who suffered from heroin addiction and currently take the substitution treatment), providing emergency/short-term daily visits for people living a situation of extreme exclusion.
Projects against torture
AJEM has been working on continuity of projects monitoring torture during arrest and imprisonment and providing assistance and rehabilitation to the victims while raising awareness about new amendments to laws regarding torture. These projects made many changes in the Lebanese attitude towards torture and ill-treatment. It aims to institutionalize the results and to advocate with the parliament while raising awareness regarding new laws. AJEM collaborates closely with other NGOs in Lebanon and with deputies to attain the objective. Furthermore, AJEM conducts campaigns to promote awareness within the Lebanese civil society to deal with political and social violence and to develop a social project that emanates the Lebanese common values and subscribes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in general and specifically in the Convention against the Torture of the United Nations. Direct assistance is provided to the victims of torture and/or to the members of their families who have suffered or witnessed the episodes of torture. The interventions aim at coping with the adverse effects of this experience and to regain control of the course of their existence. AJEM is still monitoring the appeal of the public security forces to acts of torture against the detainees since their arrest until the end of their imprisonment. AJEM is also collaborating closely with the internal committee of the ISF which investigates the act of torture. Torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of individuals who are arrested, held in custody, and/or incarcerated in Lebanese prisons, are common practices that are even justified by the Lebanese society. Statistics, compiled by AJEM for a period of 2 years (2005-2007) with detainees at the Roumieh Central Prison for men (adults), have shown that 30% of arrested individuals have undergone mistreatment during their interrogation. 17 % kept visible signs of torture five days after their arrest and several detainees showed, during their reception, signs of mental distress requiring the immediate intervention of a psychiatrist. Armed with fifteen years of experience in the area of intervention in prisons, AJEM has acquired the competencies that allow it to join efforts with the Internal Security Forces (ISF). Therefore, it has established a relationship of trust and acquired legitimacy within Lebanese society and with public authorities. AJEM has consequently the knowledge and the know-how to address the gap in the silence that embraces torture. AJEM projects’ goal is to bring about positive change to this situation, to take charge of tortured individuals, and to end these inhuman practices. It targets adults (women and men) who are arrested and incarcerated in the two central prisons: the one in Baabda (women) and the one in Roumieh (men). To solve this problem, AJEM promotes a global and integrated approach that aims at:
- The rehabilitation of tortured individuals and their families: reinforce their capacity to face the detrimental consequences of this experience and regain control over their lives in addition to implementing means to improve them.
- The training of the ISF so that the individuals pertaining to this mentioned entity acquire new knowledge of interrogation methods and reduce the use of means of torture with detainees from the moment they are held in custody and until their release.
- The renovation and rearrangement of arresting facilities (custody) throughout Lebanon in order to discourage the practice of torture; with, in particular, the implementation of means of surveillance and control in interrogation rooms: recording equipment, video… This implies the renovation and arrangement of 203 arresting facilities.
- The follow-up on the legal files of tortured individuals in order to be able to file charges; training of lawyers.
- The development of mechanisms by the authorities, for the control of torture practices on one hand; and the drafting of reports required by the convention against torture ratified by the Lebanese government, on the other hand.
- Raising the awareness of the Lebanese society concerning this issue: foster the awareness on its ability to face political and social violence and to develop a project of a society based on common Lebanese values and in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in general, and with the convention against torture.
Projects for the abolition of the Death Penalty
“Capital punishment, precisely because it is rarely imposed and exceptionally executed, is the alibi of good consciences, the moral justification of penitentiary leper houses.”
Association Justice and Mercy, committed to the defense of Human Rights in Lebanese prisons has been fighting against capital punishment for more than fifteen years; Profoundly convinced by the inhuman character of capital punishment; Persuaded that capital punishment is an act of torture and that act of execution is a dehumanizing and cruel treatment; Certain that justice must establish a balance and not favor vengeance over reason; With a strong conviction that capital punishment mainly affects disadvantaged individuals who often belong to minorities and rejects all hope of a second chance for the condemned without giving them any possibility of rehabilitation; Determined to work for the well-being of citizens and the progress of our societies, in addition to striving for a fairer world; AJEM works for the abolition of capital punishment in Lebanon. For AJEM, « capital punishment is the extreme form of torture ».With its evident cruelty, the death penalty violates the conventional human rights set out internationally. With this violation, AJEM seeks therefore to reinforce in Lebanon the application of international instruments defending the right to live as a fundamental right.
We aim to reach a consensus concerning the abolition of capital punishment through:
- The establishment of exchange and claiming of rights networks;
- The reinforcement of the intervention of civil society organizations in this area;
- The application and respect of common rights for every Lebanese citizen and foreigner in Lebanon.
It is important to reiterate that AJEM was the first NGO to rise against the sentencing and executions of capital punishment which took place after the 15 years of civil war.
AJEM’s objectives regarding the death penalty are:
- To raise the awareness of the Lebanese public and policy makers, in addition to redirecting their thinking towards the abolition of capital punishment:
- To form a common understanding of the abolition of capital punishment
- To provide means to raise the awareness of the different kinds of publics (pupils, university students, adults, judicial personnel, politicians, …)
- To promote a reconciliation between prisoners under sentence of death, their families and those of the victims
- To drive the actions necessary to commute the sentences of the detainees already on death row
- To induce the State to ratify the conventions relating to the abolition of capital punishment
ECPM (2018)
In 2018, a dual-activity project in collaboration with the French NGO and world coalition partner, Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) was launched.
The first activity is a research study about the living conditions of the death row inmates in Lebanon, within the global theme of dignity for all, marking the first study to be conducted in Lebanon on the topic.
The second activity is a seminar in which the Lebanese national coalition towards the death penalty was regathered, and AJEM advocated towards signing the UN resolution for a moratorium on death penalty.