MOSAIC is a holistic, gender-neutral and strategic program committed to improving the health and wellness of marginalized groups in Lebanon and beyond. We strive to create MOSAIC communities, where individuals of different sexual orientations and gender identities/roles coexist, on the basis of understanding and mutual respect and introduce more inclusive approaches in the fight against homophobia.

Lebanon, not signatory of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of refugees, is the country with the highest per-capita concentration of refugees worldwide.

Lebanon hosts today around 1.5 million Syrian refugee, in addition to thousands of Iraqis and Sudanese and refugees from other nationalities, including a big number of LGBTIQ persons.

In this context, MOSAIC also provides LGBTIQ refugees with legal advice and assistance related to asylum and resettlement procedures.

Violations & recommendations (demands) regarding LGBTIQ individuals living in Lebanon:

A- Violations

To abolish article 534 from the Lebanese penal code

Article 534 compromises the safety and protection of LGBT individuals and groups by subjecting them to physical, psychological, economic harm. Furthermore it makes those individuals vulnerable. The existence of such article makes this arrests and persecution legitimate with all violations that come with these arrests.

On the legal level LGBT are threatened by arrests, violations during arrests, bullying, practices that violate human rights dignity such as the anal tests that are still taking place in many police station.

On the psychological level, LGBT individuals are always in a state of fear and anxiety. Moreover, they face isolation and marginalization in society; this leads to their right to participate in political, intellectual, cultural, and social activities to be denied.

B- Our demands

• Abolish illegal and illegitimate investigations

• Ban general security offices from executing such investigations since it is not within their mandate Furthermore, general security investigations are conducted without prior indication from the public persecutor. (In some cases general security initiated investigations without any evidence)

• Refrain from collective punishments on the expenses of individual rights

• Abolish all groups and individual arrest decisions that take place prior to witnessing the “crime”.

• Document all testimonies

To refrain from arresting individuals or groups without evidences

C- Violations of privacy due to prejudice against homosexuality

• Stop subjecting individuals to HIV tests

• Stop subjecting individuals to drug tests

• Stop searching mobile phones, private documents of individuals arrested as this procedure violates the law #140/1990[i]. (This law prohibits any kind of wiretapping, surveillance, interception, or disclosure of exchanges made through any means of communication)

• Stop questioning arrested persons on their sexual activities

• Respect and not violate detainees’ personal freedoms

• Stop issuing arrest warrants despite that failed to meet legal conditions

Gender Equality Challenges & Demands:

Challenges towards achieving gender equality in Lebanon include sectarianism and limited participation of women in the political decision-making process, especially when pertaining to discrimination against women.  The involvement of religious institutions in decisions pertaining to women – such as abortion, marital rape, and violence against women, custody and passing of full citizenship to offspring – hinder gender equality changes in the country.

MOSAIC considers that the main demands of women’s organizations in Lebanon should be the following:

1. Law that criminalizes marital rape;

2. Women’s right to pass on full citizenship to their children;

3. Legalizing abortion;

4. Providing equal job opportunities based on meritocracy rather than gender quota in the workplace;

5. Demand the government to provide free daycare services for children of working mothers.