Working to secure the financial and administrative independence of the judiciary.
Vesting in the Supreme Judicial Council the sole authority to select, train, appoint, transfer, discipline, dismiss and remove judges, and to prepare and administer the judiciary's budget.
Absolute support for the international tribunal to try the killers of the martyred President Rafik Hariri and his companions, and for the International Independent Investigation Commission — both now part of the Lebanese judicial system — in order to establish the truth, achieve justice, and create a deterrent against the continued use of criminal violence and assassination for political ends.
The Army and the Armed Forces
The army and the armed forces play a pivotal role, most clearly shown by their historic achievement against terrorism at Nahr al-Bared and the army's deployment in the South in implementation of Resolution 1701.
Strengthening the army and the Internal Security Forces and increasing their equipment, weapons and training.
The army and the armed forces are the only body legally entitled to bear arms and to hold a monopoly on the use of force and violence on behalf of the state, under the command of the political authority and its constitutional institutions.
Keeping the army and all armed forces and security agencies clear of politics and political involvement.
Regarding spending on the army and the armed forces as an investment in the future.
Reforming the Political System
The Taif Agreement makes possible a calm, voluntary and gradual transition towards a non-sectarian civil system.
The modern state rests on citizenship-based belonging and full equality in rights and duties among citizens, regardless of their ethnic, religious or cultural affiliations, which must in all cases enjoy full respect so as to safeguard freedom of belief and expression.
The gradual transition to a civil state is provided for by Article 95 of the Constitution, which calls for a national body to study and propose the means of abolishing political sectarianism. This must be done in stages and in a calm, stable national and political climate, given the extreme sensitivity of the matter, its close connection to the nature of Lebanon's historical formation, and the latent and openly expressed anxieties it still arouses among a broad section of the public and among religious and political leaders — anxieties reinforced by the developments of recent years in the region.
Activating Civil Society
Modernising democracy runs through developing a civil society that contributes to public debate on policies and choices, and through advocacy campaigns and democratic pressure.
Activating civil society requires removing the distortion affecting part of its role: dozens of associations and bodies that are in effect offshoots of party and sectarian institutions, carry civic labels, capture the largest share of the public funds allocated to civic activity, and spend them by criteria closer to political clientelism.
Renewing trade-union life so as to reach sectoral bodies and federations that genuinely represent their members and are thereby empowered to defend their interests.
Adopting a new trade-union structure based on transparent representation criteria and rotation of office through democratic election mechanisms.
Partnership runs through enabling greater and more effective participation by women in government and decision-making.
Widening civic space allows a system of competition among the competent, as an alternative to the reality of begging for intercessions.
Fighting Corruption
Corruption is a complex socio-political phenomenon, not a seasonal weapon brandished against opponents and overlooked with allies.
Ending the politicisation of the judiciary and guaranteeing its independence; ending quota-sharing and protected fiefdoms within the administration; protecting public funds and public facilities; separating private interests from the public interest; and halting influence-peddling and abuse of power.
Restoring the role of oversight and good-governance bodies such as the Court of Audit, the Civil Service Council, the Central Inspection Board and the National Institute of Administration.
The Civil Service Council is the authority that sets standards in the public administration, shielded from the interference of politicians.
The National Institute of Administration prepares and trains the administrative cadres and leaders entrusted with driving administrative reform.
Addressing the Public Debt
Achieving a tangible, recurring and rising primary surplus in the budget.
Adopting a public-debt management programme with clear, achievable, time-bound targets — for the size of the debt, for its structure, and for the alignment of maturity schedules with the treasury's expected financial capacity and overall financial risks in the medium and long term.
Basing the desired administrative reform on an objective approach to both the size and the effectiveness of the public sector.
Rooting out corruption, waste and quota-sharing, and curbing the scourge of “legalised waste”.
Basing any decision to privatise certain public utilities on effectiveness, productivity and quality, and on the continuity of public-service provision to citizens in every region at fair prices.
Establishing mechanisms that prevent utilities from moving from a public-sector monopoly to a monopoly of a few in the private sector.
Reconciling social justice with the need to stimulate growth and production within the tax-reform programme.
Reforming the structure of taxes, fees and tariffs to reduce the burdens on production, replacing that revenue by levying on certain sources of rentier income that have so far remained immune to taxation.
Structural Economic Reform
Grounding the desired economic reforms in innovation, creativity, competitiveness and the knowledge economy, while respecting the environmental and social dimensions.
Providing economic transparency; simplifying and clarifying regulatory and oversight mechanisms; encouraging fair competition; and breaking up monopolies.
Making it easier for borrowers to access financing; building more effective relations between the commercial banks and the productive sectors; and speeding the introduction of new financing instruments into the financial markets.
Developing the judicial body, the financial legislation and the arbitration mechanisms, and speeding the settlement of legal disputes.
Reforms are essential for Lebanon to join the World Trade Organization at the lowest possible social cost, to engage with the members of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and to benefit from the common Arab market.
Environmental Policy
The environmental dimension is as important as the economic and social ones, especially in a small, densely populated country such as Lebanon.
Encouraging renewable energy and organic farming, and protecting water resources and water quality.
Promoting non-traditional social eco-tourism and sustainable transport.
Combining the environment with the modern commercial concept so as to place Lebanon in a leading regional position.
Drawing up a sustainable-development strategy and issuing the implementing decrees for Environment Law 444 of 2002.
Adopting the master land-use plan for Lebanese territory and a national plan for land reclamation and urban planning.
Studying and assessing environmental impact before launching any infrastructure project.
Providing incentives to enterprises that build the environmental factor into the core of production.
Social Policy
Any economic policy that ignores the social dimension may aggravate societal imbalances; and any social benefits not accompanied by economic stimulus become populist, demagogic doses that society cannot sustainably fund.
Balanced development helps build trust in the state and entrench national loyalty and citizenship-based belonging.
Balanced development is the heading for a policy that is an alternative to quota-sharing, through stimulating socio-economic dynamics and local economic cycles in the most deprived regions, leading to their integration into the national and external economic cycle.
Reforming the labour market and adopting an active employment policy that links the labour market to the education system.
Modernising the end-of-service indemnity law and replacing it with a modern law grounded in the advanced principles of old-age insurance.
Providing robust social safety nets for groups that lack sufficient competitiveness in the labour market, such as people with disabilities, the elderly, orphans, and the families of martyrs, prisoners and the missing.
Full implementation of every aspect of Law 220/2000 on the employment of people with special needs and the adaptation of infrastructure to their circumstances.
Education Policy
Giving high priority to deep reform of the education system so as to raise the level of both the public and private sectors in a virtuous cycle of interaction between them.
Doing justice to teachers, improving their standard of living, and developing their skills, teaching methods and curricula.
Treating technical and higher education as a genuine bridge to the labour market and an effective mechanism for social and economic advancement.
Radical reform of the Lebanese University: restructuring it and granting it genuine autonomy so that it can keep pace with academic developments and compete with the major long-established private universities.
Health Policy
Reviewing the philosophy of Lebanese health policy and drawing up a new strategy grounded in prevention, then care and hospitalisation.
Addressing the fragmentation of health coverage across a large number of public and private insurance schemes, and the fact that this coverage reaches only about 50 per cent of the Lebanese.
Introducing the health card to unify procedures and reduce disparities in the services provided.
