On 4 April 2025, the Council of Ministers took the fantastic step of rescinding the three decrees permitting the occupation of maritime property that were issued by Najib Mikati’s government, in contravention of laws in effect, during its final weeks. This decision, which constitutes a victory for legality and public property, heralds an end to the hemorrhaging of the shoreline through commodification and privatization of its use, paving the way for a long process of recovering stolen maritime property and undoing effects of the 1975-1990 war and the chaos that prevailed thereafter. Ahead of the publication of the reversal decrees in the Official Gazette, we would like to recall the following:

• In its final sessions, the previous government violated the regulation governing the occupation of maritime property by issuing three decrees that carved out approximately 150,000m2 of public maritime property:
  • Decree no. 14331, which targeted Bohssas. This decree granted Palma Beach Resort and Spa 76,140m2 of maritime property on the basis of Law no. 64 of 2017, even though that law permitted settlements for encroachments that began before 1994 and the encroachments in question began in 2011-2012. In other words, while this decree constituted the first application of a law intended to address encroachments that date back to the war, it exploited the law to legitimize later encroachments on the shoreline instead of curbing them. Any complacency or willful disregard toward the gravity of this decree could lead to hundreds of similar decrees legitimizing post-war encroachments.
  • Decree no 14379, which targeted Zouk Bhannine, Akkar. This decree allowed members of the Dabboussi family to occupy more than 53,000m2 in order to construct a harbor (i.e. granting a concession). The decree did not specify the intended use of the harbor, although it was probably to unload oil shipments. Once again, the decree was marred by grave violations, especially as it was accompanied by land expropriations in the same region to connect the sea to the main road. In other words, Mikati’s government used both its power to earmark the public shoreline and its power of expropriation to serve “private benefits”, all without seeking the opinion of the Higher Council for Urban Planning (HCUP).
  • Decree no. 14620, which targeted Qlaileh, Tyre. This decree granted a nonexistent company 14,560m2 of the sea without mentioning the intended use in an area classified as agricultural. The decree went against the opinion of the HCUP, which stated that the occupation request conflicted with the conditions for occupying and exploiting maritime property.

• In cooperation with the Legal Agenda and the Policy Initiative, environmentalist organizations Green Line and Green Southerners challenged these decrees before the State Council. Prior to filing the challenge, the Legal Agenda published, in Arabic, three legal analyses detailing the breaches marring them:
  • “The First Decree Settling Encroachments on Public Maritime Property: The Government Settles What the Law Prohibits Settling”
  • “Akkar’s Sea Also For Sale: Mikati’s Latest Tidal Wave”
  • “How Mikati’s Government Turned Qlaileh’s Shoreline into Fair Game: Nine Grave Violations Revealing Blatant Collusion”
    
• Within 24 hours of asking the new government to rescind the decrees, we received a response from the General Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office. The response revealed that it had already asked the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to conduct a comprehensive and precise review of the decrees’ grounds and conformity with the relevant laws and regulations, in preparation for rescinding them.

The Legal Agenda credits Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Minister of Public Works and Transport Fayez Rasamny for this unprecedented step toward protecting public property, specifically maritime public property. However, we hope that it will be followed by further steps to put Law no. 64 of 2017 into effect in order to address the encroachments produced by the war and halt the commodification and privatization of the shoreline. With the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1975-1990 war just days away, the beleaguered Lebanese people have the right to hope for such an outcome.

This article is an edited translation from Arabic.