Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently launched a report that sheds light on the major events that impacted Lebanon during the year 2022. HRW first commented on the harsh economic and financial crises ravaging Lebanon, which entered its fourth year, whereby the local currency has lost more than 95% of its value since October 2019, fueling a 332% annual inflation in food prices as at end of June 2022, and a 595% hike in the prices of electricity, water and gas as BDL subsidies were lifted. The ramifications of the aforementioned events, labelled by the World Bank as one of the most severe since the mid-nineteenth century, have been dramatic with an HRW survey indicating that 80% of the population is below the poverty line and that 70% of residents are facing difficulties in catching up with expenses. The report stressed that the crisis was mostly shouldered by low-income people and the Lebanon’s social protection system is severely underfunded. The healthcare sector was another victim of the aforementioned financial crisis, facing a short supply of imported medicines, electricity shortages, and a mass exodus of nurses and doctors, straining the remaining human resources. The education sector was no different, facing staff exodus, electricity and internet shortages with public schools being closed for large periods of time. HRW also commented that more than two years have elapsed since the Beirut port blast, and yet no one was held accountable due to political interference in the investigation. 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 tens of thousands migrant domestic workers are still working under the Kafala system and are hence excluded from Lebanon’s labor law protections, while also indicating that attempts to remove the Kafala law are being blocked. As far as women’s rights are concerned, 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 for divorce, child custody and inheritance. In addition, and as per the Lebanese law, women cannot pass their nationality to their non-Lebanese spouses and children. The report added that criticism of government policies and corruption is being faced by defamation laws, threatening as such freedom of expression. On the international actors’ front, the report cited the maritime agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel and that Lebanese security agencies are receiving assistance from a host of international donors. The report also cited the corruption and mismanagement in the electricity sector, which resulted in massive blackouts and a limited electricity supply of 2-3 hours per day. Accordingly, citizens resorted to private generators, bearing in mind that generator bills consumed on average 44% of the households monthly income, going up to 88% for low-income families. Finally, the report pointed to the $3 billion contingent facility signed with the IMF and to the indecisive parliamentary elections held in May, as well as to the failure to elect a new president and to form a new government.