The decree amending the composition of the body is to fill a vacancy for two members in it and is not an amendment to its composition
She explained that the correct description of this procedure is to fill the vacancy in the membership of the National Authority for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared persons with the two members proposed by the Supreme Judicial Council, and it is not an amendment to the formation of the National Authority, which can only be done by law.
The statement pointed out that the Commission does not hide its surprise at the inclusion of the item of appointing the two replacement judges, based on the request of the Minister of Justice, on the agenda of the Council of Ministers two days before the date of the session to elect the President of the Republic. I wish it was an expression of a new exceptional interest in strengthening the role of the National Commission, especially after it opened a window. In the file of missing and forcibly disappeared persons after the changes that took place in Syria.
The Commission drew the government and public opinion to the following points:
The Commission was keen to strictly adhere to the text of Law 105/2018 in terms of informing the government of the vacancy and the repeated request to appoint replacements. Representatives of the Beirut and Tripoli Bar Associations, and the coroner, have already been appointed in October 2022. As for the judges, Judge Antoine Daher declined to accept the assignment in April 2022, and as for Judge Salim Al-Osta, he was elected president of the body and has exercised his duties since June. 2021 until July 2022, when he resigned for health reasons.
The Commission followed up with those concerned, especially with the Ministry of Justice, to demand the appointment of two replacement judges in order to complete the membership of the Commission, through a series of correspondence in this regard that the Commission addressed to the Ministry of Justice, followed by oral reviews, in-person meetings and telephone calls, without the appointment being made, and no We stop at the reasons. Then we entered the final year of the Commission’s term, which ends at the beginning of July 2025, and we stopped reviewing this regard because Article 16 of Law 105/2018 stipulates that the appointment of replacements takes place if the remaining period of the Commission’s term exceeds one year, and the replacement completes the remaining period of the term. State. Therefore, in the case of the current appointment, this appointment is for the period of the remaining six months of the Commission’s term only, and the Commission welcomes the joining of Judges Al-Masry and Rizk to it, as it needs all possible efforts in order to carry out its duties.
She stated that, based on successive developments and the translation of the new government interest in the issue of missing and forcibly disappeared persons, the government and the Ministry of Justice will quickly take the following immediate measures:
First: Issuing a decree specifying the monthly allocations for the full-time president, and meeting attendance allowances for volunteer members. This is the responsibility of the Ministers of Justice and Finance, and this decree was supposed to be issued since 2020.
Second: The Prime Minister’s decision to double the budget allocated to the Authority, and to secure a suitable headquarters for it so that it can carry out its tasks. Pursuant to Article 23-B of Law 105, the Authority shall have a special annual financial contribution that shall be included in a special section within the budget of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and shall be sufficient to cover its expenses and activities. The general budget allocated to the Authority during the past years ranged between one billion Lebanese pounds as a minimum and three billion six hundred and fifty-three million Lebanese pounds as a maximum annually. These are completely insufficient amounts, as the Commission was unable to form its own specialized administrative and technical body that is commensurate with the nature of its tasks, noting that its members are volunteers (this is a good decision), but it must be coupled with the presence of a specialized, full-time body of non-members.
Third: The Authority’s mandate ends six months from today. The government has the duty to take binding measures in accordance with Law 105, from now on, by issuing the necessary correspondence and circulars to announce the expiration of the Authority’s current membership mandate, and inviting the concerned parties to nominate their candidates, and those wishing to run for membership, to submit their files in preparation for studying them and selecting the new members in accordance with the provisions of Article 10 of Law 105/ 2018. This process takes months, and it is necessary to start immediately and without delay.
The Commission affirmed that the government can express its commitment to the issue of missing and forcibly disappeared persons, and support the national body formed in accordance with the provisions of the law to be a national reference in this issue, by implementing these requests and with the commitment of all official institutions and bodies in accordance with cooperation with the Commission in this capacity of reference.
Article 16
The statement included the text of Article 16 – Position vacancy, which states: In the event that a membership position becomes vacant, for any reason, one year before the end of the term, the Commission announces the occurrence of the vacancy and its president informs the matter within a week to the Council of Ministers and to the authority concerned with the nomination proposal.
The Council of Ministers shall appoint the replacement member within three months from the date of taking notice in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of this law. The substitute serves the remainder of the term.
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