“It’s Part of the Job” Ill-treatment and Torture of Vulnerable Groups in Lebanese: Police Stations

This report focuses on torture and ill-treatment by the Internal Security Forces (ISF) which is Lebanon’s main police force, and in particular the Drug Repression Bureau and members of the ISF who enforce “morality-related” laws against drug users, sex workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 52 individuals that were beaten, threatened, or humiliated at the moment of arrest or during investigation. According to the victims, the police did this for a variety of reasons, including to obtain information, to force a confession, to incriminate others, to punish or discipline detainees, and to ensure that victims of violence did not speak out against the abuse they experienced at the hands of the police. The time period of the arrests ranges from 2007 to 2012.

Human Rights Watch 2013 

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. It is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich.