A statement issued by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Arab Reform Initiative, supported by numerous other members of the Global Campaign for the Right to Social Security,  underscored the alarming rise of poverty in Lebanon, calling for a radical overhaul of Lebanon's social security system, which currently fails to address the deepening crisis. 

This comes in response to alarming new data from the World Bank, which revealed in its "Lebanon Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024 – Weathering a Protracted Crisis" report published in May 2024, that over 73 percent of Lebanese citizens now live in multidimensional poverty. This stark figure reflects a range of deprivations, including inadequate access to electricity, healthcare, and education—fundamental human rights that are increasingly out of reach for the majority of the population. 

The report also revealed that monetary poverty, defined by the World Bank in January 2023 as consuming less than LBP 53.4 million per person per year (roughly USD 3 per day), has tripled over the past decade, now affecting 44 percent of Lebanon's population. 

Despite this widespread poverty, Lebanon’s approach to social security remains heavily means-tested, covering only the poorest 20 percent of the population,
the joint statement pointed out. 

Human rights organizations argue that social security is a human right under international law, to which everyone is entitled, regardless of income or assets. Eligibility for social security programs should be based on life events—such as childhood, old age, unemployment, or sickness—rather than income or wealth. 

The Lebanese government, meanwhile, has been criticized for its failure to adequately reform and fund its social security system, particularly in the face of the financial and economic crisis that began in 2019. This crisis, among the most severe globally since the mid-19th century, has entrenched longstanding inequalities in Lebanon. Five years into the crisis, the government has yet to take meaningful steps to fulfill its human rights obligations or to harness available options for raising funds, such as tackling tax evasion, addressing aggressive tax avoidance, and implementing progressive tax reforms. The government has also failed to pass a budget that ensures even the bare minimum of social security rights for its citizens. 

In their statement, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Arab Reform Initiative call on the World Bank, IMF, and international donors to stop promoting and funding narrowly means-tested programs. Instead, they urged support for expanding universal social security programs like the disability entitlement and the implementation of other universal schemes such as a social pension and a universal child benefit. The Lebanese government is also called upon to continue its progress toward universality, translate commitments into action, increase investments in social security through progressive domestic revenue generation, and establish a mechanism to address social security complaints. 

Without these critical reforms, the statement warns, Lebanon’s poverty and human rights crisis will only deepen, further entrenching inequality and undermining the social contract. The government, it argues, must act swiftly to fulfill its obligations and ensure that all citizens have access to the social security they are entitled to under international law.