Opening of New Office Premises - Foundation Office Lebanon
Event Reports
The office of the KAS in Beirut comprises the Lebanon-specific country programme as well as the region-wide Rule of Law programme that aims to support the rule of law and judicial reform in the Middle East and North Africa. The KAS is a German political foundation closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and has offices in over 80 countries in addition to 15 regional programmes worldwide.
Several decision-makers, representatives of NGOs, diplomats, and jurists attended the lecture, amongst whom were H.E. Jean Fahed, President of the Lebanese Supreme Court, and H.E. Issam Sleiman, President of the Lebanese Constitutional Council. The opening was introduced by Peter Rimmele, director of the regional Rule of Law programme and the Lebanon country project, as well as Christian Clages, the German Ambassador to Lebanon. Mr Clages welcomed the work of the KAS in the region and stressed the relevance and importance of both its Lebanon-specific programme and its regional rule of law initiative, especially given the trajectories of the Arab spring and the spill-over of the Syrian Civil War in Lebanon.
As representatives of the Lebanese judiciary, Jean Fahed and Issam Sleiman subsequently delivered their speeches in which they discussed the importance of an independent judiciary for the rule of law and democracy in Lebanon but also the broader region. Jean Fahed, who as president of the Lebanese Supreme Court occupies the highest position in the Lebanese judiciary, stressed the necessity of judicial reform in the country and that he will increase his efforts further in order to achieve that aim given the recent formation of a new government under Prime Minister Tammam Salam. Sleiman also underlined the need for judicial reform in Lebanon and highlighted the obstacles that stand in the way of a truly independent judiciary in the country. Both Fahed and Sleiman recognised the rule of law and the independence of Lebanese judicial institutions as a key to foster democracy and ensure the protection of the rights of the individual in Lebanon.
In addition to representatives of judicial institutions, the KAS invited NGOs working on interreligious dialogue as well as religious leaders in order to discuss the importance of religious dialogue and understanding in Lebanon and the Middle East. His Excellency Monsigniore Guy Noujaim addressed the audience with a short speech in which he demonstrated how societal pluralism and tolerance, reached through the dialogue between different belief systems, world views, and convictions, represent a complimentary and even necessary process by which democracy and the rule of law are arrived at and sustained, particularly in Lebanon and the Middle East and North Africa as a whole.
The lecture was followed by a reception.
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