BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman voiced his support Monday for civil personal status laws which would legalize civil marriage and provide laws for adoption and inheritance separate from the religious courts.
“A civil law for personal status represents one of the main pillars of [building] a civil state,” the president said in a statement after meeting with a delegation from the National Campaign for a Lebanese Personal Status Law.
A civil status law would not interfere in religious matters and “would strengthen dialogue among cultures and religions, making Lebanon a model country for the world in these times,” Sleiman said. The draft law on civil personal status is currently under study in a parliamentary committee.