On 11 August, Parliament approved legislation abolishing the death penalty for all crimes and replacing existing death sentences with life imprisonment, making Lebanon the first country in the region to formally abolish capital punishment. The reform was widely welcomed by human rights organizations as a landmark step toward strengthening the protection of the right to life. Although a de facto moratorium on executions had been maintained since 2004, the death penalty remained on the statute books for offences including murder and treason, and 85 people were still under sentence of death as of January 2026.

Sources: L’Orient Le Jour, Reuters, Amnesty International

On 9 March, Parliament voted to postpone the country’s legislative elections, originally scheduled for May 2026, extending the mandate of incumbent institutions by two years until 2028. The decision was justified on security and logistical grounds, with officials citing the constraints on conducting nationwide voting under unstable conditions marked by the internal displacement and insecurity caused by the armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Update: On 7 April, the Constitutional Council unanimously rejected appeals challenging the extension of Parliament’s mandate until May 2028, effectively upholding the postponement of elections. The court held that exceptional security conditions justified the delay, while stressing that the extension should be shortened should circumstances permit.

Sources: The New Arab, Naharnet, L’Orient Today

On 7 November, the government submitted a bill to Parliament that would allow citizens living abroad to vote for any of the 128 parliamentary seats in the 2026 legislative elections, with their ballots counted in their home districts. The proposal would temporarily suspend Article 112 of the 2017 electoral law, which provides for a separate diaspora constituency to elect six additional MPs under a fixed sectarian quota, one for each major confession (Maronite, Orthodox, Catholic, Sunni, Shiite, Druze). This constituency, which critics warn may reinforce sectarian divisions, was never established. In both the 2018 and 2022 elections, overseas voters cast ballots in their home districts under temporary arrangements similar to the current proposal, which supporters argue would give diaspora voters the same influence over seat allocation as residents. The bill is contentious—with different sects favoring different approaches—and it remains unclear whether the Speaker of Parliament will allow a vote.

Sources: L’Orient Today (1), L’Orient Today (2), The National, Kullana Irada, The Electoral Knowledge Network

On 9 October, the Ministry of Justice appointed a total of eleven new investigative judges to handle past cases of political assassinations, signalling a renewed effort to pursue long-standing investigations. Aimed at strengthening the judiciary’s capacity to manage politically sensitive cases, the measure could shape future access to justice, particularly given that dozens of high-profile cases remain unresolved. Many of these cases date back decades and have historically remained unresolved due to weaknesses within the judicial system, political interference and sectarian divisions. The cases pending resolution include the assassinations of MPs Antoine Ghanem (2007) and Gebran Tueni (2005), journalist Samir Kassir (2005), former minister Elie Hobeika (2002), as well as other events such as the Ehden massacre (1978) and the attempted assassination of former President Camille Chamoun (1980) during the Lebanese civil war, among others. Going forward, new procedural steps in these reopened cases could serve as potential indicators of meaningful progress.

Sources: Naharnet, L’Orient Today, LBC International, MTV Lebanon