In light of the growing sectarian discourse and the increasing tension that accompanies it in Lebanon, graduates and students of the University of Non-Violence and Human Rights (AUNOHR) organized a meeting at the headquarters of the Bar Association in Tripoli, in cooperation with the Institute of Human Rights in the Bar, with the aim of discussing ways to reduce incitement speech and strengthen the discourse of citizenship and coexistence.
A number of lawyers, students, university professors, and activists participated in this meeting, in addition to representatives of civil society and the municipality of Tripoli, and members of the union and the Human Rights Institute of the Tripoli union.
This meeting comes as a continuation of an initiative started by AUNOHR graduates and students from Beirut, through a press conference and a symbolic stand in the street, to express their rejection of war, violence, and sectarianism, and their concern about the growth of polarizing and hostile discourses in the public space. The Tripoli station represented an additional step towards transforming this movement into tangible initiatives in different regions.
The meeting began with a welcome speech from lawyer Dr. Issam Sibat, who stressed the historical role played by the Tripoli Bar Association since its founding in 1921 in defending the unifying state and preserving civil peace, considering that the legal mission goes beyond being a profession to become a commitment to protecting justice and society from tensions and divisions. He also praised the role of AUNOHR University as an academic, intellectual and citizen project that aims to promote a culture of non-violence and confront various forms of violence.
This was followed by a speech by activist Roger Pafitos, who moderated the meeting, in which he pointed out the danger of violent political discourse that penetrates minds before behavior, stressing that what is happening is not just a passing phenomenon, but rather a structural challenge that requires moving from mere diagnosis to action, and from reactions to building preventive strategies with the participation of the media, civil society, and educational institutions.
After that, students and graduates of AUNOHR University presented their statement, and Imad Salman and Fatima Al-Saba spoke on their behalf, stressing that the danger threatening Lebanon today is not limited to war only, but rather lies in the deepening of the internal division due to sectarian and political rhetoric, and that confronting incitement is not just a moral choice, but rather a legal and societal responsibility.
They called for taking practical steps that include reducing inflammatory speech in the media and means of communication, launching student and youth initiatives that extend beyond the regions, and activating the role of educational institutions such as schools and universities in promoting a culture of citizenship and non-violence.
Then, the founder of the University of Nonviolence and Human Rights, Dr. Ugarit Younan, delivered a speech, beginning by pointing out the symbolism of holding the meeting in Tripoli, “which witnessed the beginnings of a long debate on nonviolence and nonsectarianism since the years of the civil war,” stressing the importance of continuing this path despite the complexities of the Lebanese situation.
She also paid tribute to the suffering, the victims, the displaced, the prisoners, and the missing, stressing that “we stand before people’s suffering with humility” before any other consideration.
In the context of her intervention, Younan recalled excerpts from a text by thinker Walid Salibi dating back to 2010, entitled “An Appeal to the Lebanese People,” which emphasizes the idea of a “common human identity” that transcends hatred, violence, and sectarianism, and the necessity of nonviolent initiative to prevent society’s slide toward strife, in light of what the text described as “a race against retreat and death.”
In her analysis of reality, Dr. Younan said that sectarianism is not just a word, but rather a crime, and it is essentially an established structure in the formation of the state and society, and that solutions will not be achieved except by returning to the roots of the problem, and not by partial, formal, patchwork solutions that have proven to fail, as every social or political truce quickly vanishes at the first test.
She explained that the problem is not limited to sectarianism only, but also includes the relationship with politics, with the concept of violence and non-violence, with the nature of affiliations in Lebanon, and how we live politics under occupation, war and aggression.
She emphasized that society is not governed by unilateral violence or the dominance of sectarianism, and that “hope is not an abstract idea, but a realistic possibility when non-sectarian and non-violent energies are organized and transformed into collective action, and they exist and are at the roots of this country.”
Here, Younan invoked a quote by Bertrand Russell: “Remember your humanity and forget the rest,” explaining that what is meant by humanity is not only compassion or charitable work, but rather a radical moral stance that completely rejects violence, and that “humanity is indivisible.”
She concluded by saying: “Everyone is free to have his political opinion, but: violence is forbidden, fanaticism is forbidden, provided that there is difference in politics and diversity in affiliations, but there is no difference in humanity, for it is one.”
For her part, Professor Rana Deblaise, Director of the Human Rights Institute at the Tripoli Bar Association, said that the meeting comes at a sensitive moment in which sectarian rhetoric is escalating and the tone of incitement is rising, considering that the real danger lies not only in war, but in the gradual erosion of the idea of the state and society’s slide toward divisions that reproduce the tragedies of the past.
She stressed that reducing a person to his sectarian identity means losing justice, dignity, and homeland, stressing that rights are indivisible and that dignity is not categorized. It also called for a clear position that favors humanity and civil peace, rejecting incitement, holding accountable speech that instills fear, and promoting a culture of dialogue as a basic approach to getting out of the crisis.
She considered that saving Lebanon would not be achieved through slogans, but rather through a real will to reject division and restore the common space between the Lebanese.
The meeting concluded with a discussion among the attendees, and the interventions included many opinions on sectarianism, presenting examples of the escalation of tension through social media and dealing with displacement, emphasizing the responsibility of every individual in his or her surroundings first, and expressing their expectation for practical initiatives that contribute to changing this painful reality.
