Lebanon ratified the Convention against Torture (CAT) in 2000 and the Optional Protocol to the Convention (OPCAT) in December 2008. However, Lebanon has not yet provided an Initial Report to the Committee against Torture thus failing to meet one of its central obligations undertaken upon ratifying the Convention.

Following its ratification of the Optional Protocol, Lebanese Minister of Justice Dr. Ibrahim Najjar set-up a committee to draft an NPM proposal in 20 June 2009, and appointed Alkarama as the NGO representative on this committee. The committee submitted its proposal on 30 September 2009 to the Justice Ministry, but no further steps were taken. Lebanon has missed the December 2009 deadline, set by the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT), to form a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) tasked with preventing torture through regular visits to places of detention in the country.

Alkarama submitted to the Subcommittee relevant information, including its report on Torture in Lebanon, published in October 2009 and a number of recommendations for the Subcommittee to consider asking the Lebanese Government. These included that:

- Investigations be systematically initiated into torture allegations;
- Statements extracted under torture not be used as evidence in any proceedings;
- Lebanon submit its Initial Report to the Committee Against Torture;
- Lebanon establish a national prevention mechanism in conformity with its obligations under the OPCAT.
- Deport foreigners who have finished their sentences and who are to be expelled from their prisons directly to their country, without detaining them for undetermined periods in the General Security Detention Centre.

Alkarama welcomes this visit by the Subcommittee and hopes it will lead to real improvements in the detention conditions in Lebanese prisons and bring a halt to the systematic mistreatment and torture which occurs in detention centers and prisons in Lebanon.