November 14, 2026
The Central Committee of Successful Candidates in the Civil Service Council competitions for the position of secondary education teacher denounced the issuance of a decree requiring the appointment of a successful female candidate for one of those competitions, based on the waiver of his job position by a professor who had been appointed about ten years ago. The committee confirmed that this measure entails a clear violation of the general legal principles that restrict the administration’s powers.
In a statement it issued, the committee refuted the legal objections to the decree in three main axes, starting with “violating the principle of non-retroactivity of administrative decisions,” as it explained that this principle – enshrined in the jurisprudence of the Lebanese State Shura Council (Resolution No. 890 dated 7/16/1964) as a legal text – prevents the administration from giving retroactive legal effects to its decisions without an explicit legislative text. The committee considered that reviving the effects of a waiver incident dating back about ten years to generate a new individual entitlement constitutes a fundamental violation that requires invalidating the decision for exceeding the limit of authority.
In the second axis, related to “violating the principle of equality and equal opportunities,” the committee noted that Article 80 of Law No. 144/2019 preserved the right of all successful candidates to be appointed, just as the introduction to the Constitution and Articles 7 and 12 thereof enshrined the principle of equality and assuming public positions on the basis of merit and merit. She pointed out that the successful beneficiary does not have a legal status different from the rest of her successful colleagues, which makes her allocation alone by an exceptional appointment decision a distinction that is not justified by an objective legal difference.
As for the third axis, the committee considered that the decree constitutes a “serious violation of the provisions of Article 12 of the Constitution,” as it transforms the legally reserved right of appointment into a selective privilege for one individual, stressing that the administration is constitutionally obligated not to prefer any candidate over another except according to criteria of merit and merit.
The committee concluded its statement by highlighting the signature of the Minister of Education, Rima Karami, and her approval of the decree, denouncing this behavior that contradicts constitutional rules and reveals – according to the statement – a failure to implement the slogans of reform. The Minister demanded that a new draft decree be prepared immediately to appoint all successful people to the staff, announcing that her meetings would be kept open to take action against arbitrary practices, and to preserve the right of successful people to resort to the competent judiciary.
