The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) is a local non-profit, non-partisan Lebanese human rights organization based in Beirut. CLDH was created in 2006 by the Franco-Lebanese Movement SOLIDA (Support for Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily), which has been active since 1996 in the struggle against arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and the impunity of those perpetrating gross human rights violations.
CLDH monitors the human rights situation in Lebanon, fights enforced disappearance, impunity, arbitrary detention and racism, and rehabilitates the victims of torture. CLDH regularly organizes press conferences, workshops and advocacy meetings on human rights issues in Lebanon and collects, records and documents human rights abuses in reports and press releases.
CLDH team on the ground supports initiatives aimed at determining the fate of all missing persons in Lebanon.
It regularly follows up on numerous cases of arbitrary detention and torture in Lebanese prisons for Lebanese and refugees as well, in coordination with Lebanese and international organizations, and with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention WGAD and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. It provides legal assistance for inmates.
CLDH opened in September 2007 a Rehabilitation Center for the victims of torture in Beirut, Centre Nassim (nassim means "breeze") which offers programs that could last for six months depending on the cases it deals with. The beneficiaries are former detainees in Israeli or Syrian prisons, as well as any victim on Lebanese soil, regardless of race and nationalities, including refugees and foreign laborers. It opposes deportation of refugees at risk, mainly Syrian and Sudanese. CLHD is member of IRCT (International Rehabilitation Council for Torture victims), which provides multi-disciplinary professional support and case management for victims of torture and their families.
CLDH compiles a daily press review on human rights violations and on-going judiciary cases in Lebanon and updates several human rights blogs. It has become a leading source in documenting violations Syrian refugees, whether in informal camps or detention centers.
It opposes arbitrary summons of journalist, activists and cyber experts over social media posts. The crackdown on cyberspace activists included in 2018 it's president Wadih Al-Asmar.
CLDH is a founding member of the Euro-Mediterranean Federation against Enforced Disappearance (FEMED), a member of the Euro-Mediterranean Network of Human Rights (REMDH), a member of the SOS Torture Network of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), and of FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights).
As expected, CLDH was involved in the Lebanese uprising of 2019 since its beginning in October 17th. It documented all human rights violations. It offered a hotline to provide legal assistance for detainees during demonstrations. Lebanon's security forces have reportedly used excessive force and failed to adequately protect protesters from violent attacks by others, despite the overwhelmingly peaceful nature of the demonstrations across the country, according to UN human rights experts. CLDH called for the protection of the freedom of assembly and strike as well as the respect of local and international commitments in almost daily statements.
