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Lebanon's Parliament voted on August 11, 2026 to abolish the death penalty, the first country in the Middle East to do so in law.
Capital punishment is replaced by life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour.
The law commutes the sentences of roughly 84 to 85 prisoners on death row.
It codifies a de facto moratorium in place since January 17, 2004, when Lebanon last carried out an execution.
The Hezbollah parliamentary bloc voted against the repeal.
Comparative law distinguishes four positions. ABOLITIONIST FOR ALL CRIMES means capital punishment is removed from the statute book entirely — Lebanon's new position. ABOLITIONIST FOR ORDINARY CRIMES ONLY means it is retained for exceptional offences such as those under military or wartime law. ABOLITIONIST IN PRACTICE means the penalty remains on the books but no executions have been carried out for years — Lebanon's position from 2004 until this vote, known as a de facto moratorium. RETENTIONIST means it is both lawful and used. This vote moved Lebanon from the third category to the first.
Simple Analogy: A moratorium is a rule you have stopped enforcing; abolition is deleting the rule.
Lebanon carries out its last execution, beginning a de facto moratorium
The death penalty remains in law but is not applied
Parliament votes to abolish it and commute existing death sentences
GS Paper II > International Relations; GS Paper I > Society and Human Rights
General Awareness > International Current Affairs
A situation where a penalty remains lawful but is not applied in practice over a sustained period.
A country that has removed capital punishment for ordinary offences but retains it for exceptional ones such as wartime crimes.
The substitution of a lesser punishment for a more severe one already imposed.
A regional organisation of 22 member states across West Asia and North Africa.