Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently launched a report that sheds light on the major events that impacted Lebanon during the year 2021. HRW first commented on the harsh economic and financial crises ravaging Lebanon, whereby the local currency has lost more than 90% of its value since October 2019, fueling a 281% inflation between June 2019 and June 2021 and a 550% hike in food prices between August 2020 and August 2021. In this context, HRW noted that the Central Bank’s decision to halt subsidies on vital imports, as reserves dwindled, led to severe fuel shortages, electricity blackouts, and to long waiting queues for necessities such as bread. The ramifications of the aforementioned events have been dramatic, as per Human Rights Watch with 78% of Lebanon’s population falling under the poverty line by end of 2021 (tripling the estimated figure for 2020), and 36% enduring extreme poverty, up from 23% in 2020 and 8% in 2019. The health care sector was another victim of the aforementioned financial crisis, with the short supply of imported medicines leading to several deaths, electricity shortages driving hospitals into “imminent disasters”, and the dramatic devaluation in real salaries leading to a mass exodus of nurses and doctors, straining remaining human resources. To make things worse for the healthcare sector, Human Rights Watch indicated that the Lebanese government is yet to disburse large amounts of money that it owes to hospitals. HRW also commented on the Beirut port blast, which resulted in a massive human toll (219 deaths, 7,000 wounded and hundreds of permanent disabilities).  In this context, Humans Rights Watch unveiled that the tragic explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, comes in the wake of years of mismanagement and corruption at the port facility. From a positive standpoint, HRW reported that in December 2020 the World Bank, United Nations, and European Union agreed on an innovative model for disbursing aid to nongovernmental groups and businesses in Lebanon in the aftermath of the blast. On the refugees front, HRW pinpointed that there are some 900,000 registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, in addition to some 0.5 million that live in the country in an informal manner, with 90% of Syrian refugees living in extreme poverty. HRW added that there are also some 174,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, facing several restrictions. Similarly, the Human Rights Watch unveiled that some 250,000 migrant domestic workers are still working under the Kafala system and accordingly are excluded from Lebanon’s labor low protections, being forced to work for long hours at a reduced pay, deprived of rest and subjected to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. As far as children’s rights are concerned, the report uncovered that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the limited distance learning resulted in the deprivation of many students from a meaningful education. When it comes to women’s rights, the report uncovered that women continue to face discrimination under the religious-based personal status laws which put them on unequal footings with men when it comes to their rights to divorce, child custody and inheritance. In addition, and as per the Lebanese law, women cannot pass their nationality to their non-Lebanese husbands and children. On the other hand, Human Rights Watch uncovered that the Lebanese parliament passed in December 2020 a law that criminalizes sexual harassment, whilst also amending the scope of the domestic violence law to further protect women.