How has the Lebanese government responded to Hurriyyat Khassa?
The standard response of the government to civil society initiatives is: no repression, no encouragement, distant monitoring, no guaranteed rights. Our actual legal status is a “civil partnership,” almost a research center, so we did not require any government-issued authorization. Has there been any attempt to intimidate us or to restrain our activities? No, although we are openly raising controversial issues and have many times strongly criticized the government’s position. Is there, on the other hand, any cooperation or encouragement? Not really. We have been invited to send the recommendations of the penal code conference to the parliamentary committee on human rights and we are expecting more cooperation from other deputies and committees. We are often invited by government bodies, such as those working on children’s rights or AIDS, to attend meetings and so on. At any rate, one may say that, at this stage of our development, we are more enthusiastic about finding allies within ci
