Every harm calls for compensation. This paper looks at what "victim" and "compensation" mean in international law, and at Lebanese law, which does not clearly define who counts as a victim or who is entitled to compensation. It compares this with other countries, including the Aberfan disaster in Wales in 1966.
It then turns to the victims of the Beirut port explosion: the Higher Relief Council's decision to give 30 million Lebanese pounds to the heirs of each victim, and its shortcomings; and Law 196/2020, which treats the civilian dead like soldiers killed in service but leaves out people harmed psychologically and the foreign victims, and has stayed ink on paper since it was passed.
Its conclusion: compensation is the victims' right, not a way to buy their silence. It is both material and moral, through memorials, street names, preserved sites, museums and a public apology.
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The full article is in Arabic.