Publications

          في زمن حيث تنمو الشكوى من سوء إدارة المال العام والمطالبة بالشفافية في المشتريات العامة، يصدر دليل تطبيقي عن المؤسسة اللبنانية للسلم الأهلي الدائم والوكالة الأميركية للتنمية الدولية USAID يُحدد التفاصيل الإجرائية حول قواعد المشتريات العامة والشفافية في التطبيق. الدليل هو ثمرة توثيق واستقصاء واختبار بالتعاون مع عدة إدارات في لبنان (دليل شفافية المشتريات في عقود الشراكة بين القطاعين العام والخاص -لبنان، بيروت، المؤسسة اللبنانية للسلم الأهلي الدائم والوكالة الأميركية للتنمية الدولية USAID، منشورات المؤسسة اللبنانية للسلم الأهلي الدائم، جزء 45، 2019، 80 ص + 80 بالإنكليزية).

The book published by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace includes the proceedings of four seminars held by the Foundation in cooperation with Tripoli 's cultural Movement, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Zahle, and the Cultural Movement in Antelias. These seminars aimed at studying the legislations currently examined by the Chamber of Deputies, the Council of Ministers and public administrations (Dir.Antoine Messarra, Lebanese Legislation Monitor: Bridging the Gap Between Legislators and Civil Society, Beirut , Librairie Orientale, 2005, 552 p.)

The forward reads: “The Lebanese Legislation Monitor was established for practical and applied communication between legislators and civil society as concerns legislation to avoid that it be served all ready to the people. The latter ought to feel concerned and share in the making of this legislation endowing it with legitimacy, thus increasing its chances to be enforced. Laws that are not highly legitimate – i.e. accepted by the people – deviate when applied or are not applied at all or are enforced through strength, which implies a high administrative and judicial cost in order to ensure application and sanction infringements.”

The introduction reads: “Those who are basically concerned by legislations are the people, all the people. If a legislation is in favor of a given social category, the latter ought to ensure that the prerogatives and guarantees endowed upon them through this legislation be transmitted to all the society. The democratic aspect of any legislation does not only result from the Chamber of Deputies; MPs and ministers ought to assume the major responsibility of informing, encouraging initiative-taking, inciting debate before and during the study of laws and their approval. Legislation requires a methodology as concerns public information, follow-up, and communication between legislators and civil society.”

Great effort has been done in order to hold municipal elections in Lebanon , university research has been published about municipalities in Lebanon but there is no in-depth field and training work to use the municipal elections in local democratic practices.

In is in fact on the local level that citizens actually “see” where the money they paid has been used for and “feel” their power to change things wherever they may be.

If such training is spread to various towns and carried on for at least three years using knowledge and know-how it will necessarily have consequences on a national scale.

April 13: Forgetting, but Remembering Still

The work published by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace is both a fundamental and practical reference that helps build collective memory in the light of shared experiences and suffering during the 1975-1990 wars in Lebanon ( Monitoring Civil Peace and Memory in lebanon , dir. Antoine Messarra, Librairie Orientale, 2004, 656 p.).

On the cover one can see the huge petition signed during the war years in Lebanon by thousands of Lebanese; it is both a symbol of civil resistance and a “peace pact”. Two interviews have been carried out with Issam Khalifé and Amale Dibo about the history of this streamer that should be, according to the authors, shown at the National Museum or in a “Museum of the Memory in Lebanon ”. It quotes the Apostolic exhortation: “One should, above all, keep alive the memory of what has happened in order to prevent it from ever happening again.” (no 114).

The work includes the yearly reports of the programme “Monitoring Civil Peace and Memory in Lebanon ” (Tony Atallah) which was started in 1999 by the foundation. It also includes the proceedings of five seminars organized between 1999 and 2003 with the participation of 48 members of the Programme, academics, researchers, journalists and social actors.

Any long-term sustainable policy should be local since it is linked with the local population's direct and efficient participation in development based on this population's potential. The latter bears the fruit of its action and of good or bad governance. Lebanon has not exerted any major efforts in this sense despite its rich democratic heritage as nepotism thrives, and conflicts with the view of personal interests abound.

The three-year programme: “Strengthening Local Governance: Initiative, Participation and Citizenship on the Local Level” (2001-2004) undertaken by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace in cooperation with National Endowment for Democracy is about concrete experiences of local democracy in several Lebanese towns through three means: local legal information, participation of citizens and pilot small projects carried out locally.

The books in three volumes ( Strengthening Local Governance: Initiative, Participation and Citizenship on the Local Level in Lebanon , Beirut, Librairie Orientale, 2002-2004, 3 vol.) includes the proceedings of seminars organized by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace in more than twenty towns (Mizyara, Hammana, Rachaya-l-Wàdî, Kobeyyat…) in order to promote local democratic debate on vital, daily, general interest issues, in cooperation with the Mizyara Youth Club, the Hammana Tourist Club, the Rachayya-l-Wadi Environment Association and the Agricultural Cooperative in Kobeyyat. Local coordination for these seminars was ensured by Rania Khoury, Maya Kanaan Saad, Chadi Saad, Tony Georges Atallah, Muhammad al-Masri… The book includes a chapter entitled: “Hurdles and Initiatives in Local Development” with the description of local initiatives, as well as a “Citizen's Guide to Administrative Procedures” set forth by Evelyne Messarra describing 35 municipal formalities.

The Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation published a book entitled: Electoral Geography in Lebanon: Conditions of Democratic Representation ( Beirut , Librairie Orientale, 2002, 372 p.). This book sets a pattern as to the study of constituencies – based on the Lebanese experience which dates back to 1920 – on the principle of a unified electorate and the conditions of the common living pact.

The book is the result of group work in which more than twenty researchers participated; it includes interviews with researchers and politicians and the proceedings of two seminars held about political science in the St Joseph University on July 6 and December 1 st , 2001. Vol. II is to be published in March 2003 including the proceedings of four seminars held in various muhafazats in cooperation with Tripoli's Cultural League (13/04/2002), Zahle's Dailogue Forum (29/06/2002), Saida's Development and Dialogue Center (26/10/2002) and the Cultural Movement in Antelias (10/12/2002).

Any long-term sustainable policy should be local since it is linked with the local population's direct and efficient participation in development based on this population's potential. The latter bears the fruit of its action and of good or bad governance. Lebanon has not exerted any major efforts in this sense despite its rich democratic heritage as nepotism thrives, and conflicts with the view of personal interests abound.

The three-year programme: “Strengthening Local Governance: Initiative, Participation and Citizenship on the Local Level” (2001-2004) undertaken by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace in cooperation with National Endowment for Democracy is about concrete experiences of local democracy in several Lebanese towns through three means: local legal information, participation of citizens and pilot small projects carried out locally.

The books in three volumes ( Strengthening Local Governance: Initiative, Participation and Citizenship on the Local Level in Lebanon , Beirut, Librairie Orientale, 2002-2004, 3 vol.) includes the proceedings of seminars organized by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace in more than twenty towns (Mizyara, Hammana, Rachaya-l-Wàdî, Kobeyyat…) in order to promote local democratic debate on vital, daily, general interest issues, in cooperation with the Mizyara Youth Club, the Hammana Tourist Club, the Rachayya-l-Wadi Environment Association and the Agricultural Cooperative in Kobeyyat. Local coordination for these seminars was ensured by Rania Khoury, Maya Kanaan Saad, Chadi Saad, Tony Georges Atallah, Muhammad al-Masri… The book includes a chapter entitled: “Hurdles and Initiatives in Local Development” with the description of local initiatives, as well as a “Citizen's Guide to Administrative Procedures” set forth by Evelyne Messarra describing 35 municipal formalities.

La première publication de la Fondation Libanaise pour la paix civile permanente, sous le titre : Le droit à la mémoire (Beyrouth, 1988, 360 p.) constitue une contribution originale et une approche nouvelle en sciences humaines. L'ouvrage comporte les actes du premier séminaire international organisé par la Fondation du 8 au 12 juillet 1987 sur le thème : « Coût des conflits internes et construction de la mémoire collective au Liban. »

Les vingt-quatre communications du 1 er séminaire international et les débats publiés dans Le droit à la mémoire s'articulent autour de quatre thèmes principaux :

Quelle est la problématique de la construction démocratique pour le Liban d'après-guerre ? Quelles en sont les dimensions régionales, politiques, sociales et culturelles ? Quelles sont les actions de terrain qui contribuent à la consolidation de la citoyenneté, de l'Etat de droit et de la pérennité du Liban en tant que modèle de gestion rationnelle du pluralisme?