Alia Aoun on the future of accountability in Lebanon

There is a real thirst for justice amongst the Lebanese, they have not given up on this. But they do not necessarily look in the direction of international institutions.

Alia Aoun is a Franco-Lebanese lawyer with a career in international criminal law, human rights, and transitional justice. She currently serves as a Counselor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where she contributes to advancing international justice and accountability. Previously, she held the position of Deputy Head of the Defense Office at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), playing a key role in safeguarding the rights of the accused while promoting fair trial standards. In 2006, Alia Aoun founded the “Lawyers Association For Lebanon”, whose objectives are to promote the rule of law in Lebanon, abolish the death penalty, and get the Lebanese State to adopt the Rome Statute of 1998.

The creation of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) marked a turning point in international criminal justice. The STL was based in The Hague but focused on a Lebanese case:  the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri following an explosion in Beirut. The STL was the first international tribunal to prosecute terrorism as a distinct crime. Its hybrid structure - Lebanese law associated with international legal standards, and its composition of both national and international personnel - made it a unique model in the international legal scene. The STL raises questions not only about the internationalization of justice in Lebanon, but also about how such mechanisms affect victims’ rights, trust in institutions, and the role of international law in local accountability processes.

While Lebanon signed the ICC Rome Statute on the 11th of February 2000, it is still not a ratifying member. Therefore, Lebanon is not legally bound by its provisions and is not under the ICC’s jurisdiction unless the country accepts it voluntarily or the UN Security Council refers a case. Recently, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers has taken steps towards accepting ICC jurisdiction within their territory, by instructing their Foreign Affairs Ministry to submit a declaration to the ICC, allowing the court to investigate and prosecute crimes occurring within Lebanese territory since the 7th of October 2023.

Given Alia Aoun's legal advocacy for Lebanon's ratification of the Rome Statute and her long-standing commitment to justice reform, we explored her views on whether the ICC offers a meaningful path to accountability for victims in Lebanon today.

Interview by Mariane Bonnet, Clara Lortholary, Océane Fleith, and Luxane Lefevre.

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The interview was conducted early May 2025 and has been edited for clarity.

Could you explain how Lebanon’s ratification of the Rome Statute could strengthen victims’ rights under international law?

I must acknowledge that I am much less enthusiastic today than I used to be before about international justice. This does not mean that I would not support, or advocate for, or believe in the necessity for ensuring accountability for the crimes that took place during the Lebanese war, and after the Lebanese war, and that are still going on, until very recently.

There must be accountability, and there must be remedy for the people of Lebanon. Should that be before ICC ? Not necessarily, not exclusively.  I think that today we do have many other means of searching for justice.

What happened after the explosion of the beyrouth port in August 2020 is very significant and tells us a lot about the lack of trust amongst the Lebanese towards international mechanisms. There is a real thirst for justice amongst the Lebanese, they have not given up on this. But they do not necessarily look in the direction of international institutions. I think there is a big support for the work that is being done by the Lebanese judges after this explosion, but there is certainly also a need for something more, in order for the work of the judges to be effective.

There are many possibilities for cooperation, there are many avenues for international support in order for the Lebanese to get closer to a kind of accountability for what they have endured. I think this is much wider than the ratification of the Rome statute. This might happen, but I am not sure that the time has come in Lebanon for this to happen. You certainly know that the ratification of the Rome statute requires consensus and political stability [...]. All the difficulties that are faced by the court today do not necessarily encourage the Lebanese in this direction either.

As mentioned earlier, the STL took place in the Netherlands, where the ICC trials are also located. Furthermore, a distinct feature of the STL was that the court did not have the power to grant reparations to the victims. Instead, following the conclusion of the trial, victims could open proceedings for compensation in Lebanese civil courts using the STL judgment. Considering the distance between the Hague and Lebanon and the necessity for victims to await the results from a trial happening in a foreign country to open proceedings at the domestic level, how was the Special Tribunal for Lebanon perceived by the Lebanese civil society at the time?

This question is very important because we always need to link these institutions to their raison d’être. Why were they set up in the first place? I can tell you that this tribunal raised many hopes in Lebanese society. And not only amongst the victims. You did have the direct victims. Perhaps all of society could be considered as an indirect victim of this huge blast that has physically, materially, and psychologically affected the Lebanese as a whole. 

It is true that the rules of the tribunal did not allow for reparations to victims. It did give space for victims to express their views and their concerns, which was kind of a compromise at that time before that type of institution. The expectations were very high within Lebanese society. Were they fulfilled? That is another matter. Perhaps we will come to this question when we address the legacy and future of this type of institution.