The Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon

The text of the speech with which Mrs. Alice Nakkash opened the General Assembly of the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon, on Thursday, June 7, 1951, under the presidency of the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Anis Salih, who presented the association, in the name of His Excellency the President of the Republic, with 300 Lebanese lira in appreciation of its efforts.

The Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon, that esteemed association of public utility, is not unknown to you, for you have already become acquainted with some aspects of its activity in its early days, particularly in the field of labor inspection in workshops and factories to ensure the application of the law of April 17, 1935 — this immediately upon its founding at the hands of its first members, Messrs. Sami al-Solh, Alfred Naccache, Professor Bianchi, and Father Lejensel. To carry out the inspection the Union enlisted six sworn inspectresses with official standing, who between 1940 and 1945 drew up 1,039 inspections concerning the commencement of work, the kinds of work forbidden to children, the required age, the medical certificate, the compulsory rest, la pause obligatoire, the prohibition of night work, the ventilation of the premises prepared for work, the lighting of factories, sanitary installations, and protection against machinery.

As for the reports which the inspectresses drew up, they were all inspired by a humane spirit, not by any desire for retribution or revenge.

One result of that work was that the inspectresses lent their experience to the authorities, proposing to them amendments to the aforementioned law of April 17 and issuing a bulletin on labor inspection in Lebanon; they also prepared numerous reports and useful statistics on the kinds of factories and their number in Beirut and Lebanon.

Accordingly the condition of the worker in the factories improved, and working hours fell from 10 and 11 a day to 8 and 9, between 1936 and 1946.

Regrettably, however, in 1945 this work passed to the Department of Social Affairs in the Ministry of Economy, and since then the work and the inspections have come to a halt — despite the reports we submitted and the efforts we made.

Yet there remained to the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon another task, which it had begun to undertake in 1939: the care of delinquent minors.

In this field we are pleased to say that our Union has rendered the authorities an important service. For it helped to bring about special legislation for delinquents and the creation of the juvenile courts; and it contributed effectively to the establishment of the Juvenile Reform Institute, at the hands of numerous specialists, among whom I mention Mr. Georges Sassi, who rendered the Union and the authorities many services.

The Union likewise approached the Ministry of National Education to have certain teachers charged with the care of delinquent minors in the annexed districts, regarding this work as a first step to be followed by a second, in which specialists would be appointed in place of the present delegates. That may not come about until a special cadre of social assistants is created for the juvenile courts.

And now I have learned, esteemed Director, that you have appointed Miss Marie Rizk to the juvenile court in the Bekaa. You have thereby taken the second step, and it falls to us to thank you for your zeal, as it falls to us to thank Mr. Nasri Haddad for the efforts he made to have Miss Rizk — a student of the Lebanese School for Social Training and one of the trainees in our Union — appointed as a judicial assistant.

Two years ago a medical committee attached to the Union was formed, composed of Doctors Oscar Chidiac, Eileen Rosko, and Henri Badaro and Professor Théophile Maroun; its task is to bring to light the inherited physical defects that lead to crime. It found that in most cases delinquency results from poverty and want, from the decay of morals and the dissolution of the marriage bond, more than it results from causes of health — which moved one of the doctors to say: "Why do we not put these minors to work on an agricultural project?"

On this occasion I point to the numerous reports and plans in the Union's office, studied by people of experience — among them an agricultural project, a project to amend the penal code, a project to combat begging and vagrancy, and so on.

Because of this experience we have gained, we have been asked repeatedly to answer questions addressed to us by the United Nations and by UNESCO on the condition of childhood and youth in Lebanon; we have likewise supplied information to numerous personalities, national and foreign — most recently Mr. Midani, prosecutor general of the Court of Appeal in Syria. Following that visit, Miss Loris Hakim, a graduate of the Lebanese School for Social Training and one of the trainees in the Union's office, was appointed to the Ministry of Health and Public Assistance in Aleppo.

Here I must point to the important role played by the Lebanese School for Social Training in preparing assistants for social work. This school was founded by foreign nuns, and its teaching was entrusted to people of standing in the worlds of medicine, law, and education.

To date six assistants have graduated from this school: one has been appointed in our Union, the second at the head of the government dispensary for combating tuberculosis, the third at a social center in the Bekaa plain, as we have already said, and the fourth in Aleppo; the remaining two have not yet been appointed.

Before I come to the close, I wish to extend abundant thanks to all the members of the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon for the unceasing efforts they make despite the difficulties that face them and the occupations that engage them; and likewise to all the donors, men and women, who render the Union many services, whether by work and assistance or by other means.

I mention in particular President Choucri Cardahi, a member of our Union, for the efforts he makes every year with the authorities to obtain financial assistance.

I also thank most particularly the members of our office — the Misses Georgette Abou Samra and Widad Abou Nader and Mr. Moubarak Aoun — for the zeal and ardor they display.

Miss Abou Samra has worked in the Union for more than eight years. After carrying out the task of inspecting workshops and factories for four years, during which she gained wide experience, she returned and devoted herself entirely to her delinquent juveniles, working for them with all the love and experience she possesses.

As for Miss Abou Nader, after practicing the art of midwifery at the French Maternity Hospital, she studied at the Lebanese School for Social Training, obtained the official diploma, and specialized in the care of delinquent juveniles; her experience in this field has proved most useful for the work entrusted to her.

As for Mr. Moubarak Aoun, the Union's lawyer, he made two journeys to Europe to acquaint himself with the laws relating to juveniles of every kind. In 1948 he visited the institutions and courts in France, particularly in Paris, and Grenoble, Saint-Étienne, Marseille, and Lyon. He then traveled again in 1950 to Paris and London, where in the two capitals he studied the organization of the juvenile courts and confined his work to them for a time; he then studied the Directorate of Supervised Education, la Direction de l'Éducation surveillée, attached to the Ministry of Justice in France, and the administration of home and family, the "Home Office," in Britain. He returned with wide experience and valuable plans, which he laid before the Union, and part of which he published.

From all the foregoing it becomes clear to you, esteemed Director General, that our Union was the first to concern itself with the social problem in Lebanon, and that for this reason, therefore, you ought to concern yourselves with it and supply it with the financial assistance it cannot do without — especially as it performs a semi-governmental social work.

You have in this the example of what takes place in France and Britain, for instance, where we find the official authorities plainly encouraging private undertakings and nourishing them with money. And if we look at the institutions intended for convicted juveniles, we find that the number of official ones falls far below the private: (160 private institutions against 10 governmental, in France; and 113 private against 29 governmental in England.) This with the observation that the French and British authorities bear the expenses of all the private institutions.

For that reason, I do not think it too much to ask for this year an additional sum which would enable me to appoint a new assistant to attend to supervised liberty, Liberté surveillée.

I address this request to you in the certain knowledge that you have always considered, and still consider, our Union an essential element for informing the mind of the court about the social circumstances of juveniles, and that you regard it as a social agency that can be relied upon.

With this, hoping that you will exert every effort to grant our request, I extend to you my abundant thanks and those of the Union.