Ziyad Baroud ( ; born 29 April 1970) is a French Lebanese (7 february 2021). In Journal officiel de la République Française. Retrieved on 20 november 2022. civil servant and civil society activist. He served as minister of interior and municipalities from 2008 to 2011 for two consecutive cabinets in both Fuad Siniora and Saad Hariri's governments.
An attorney by practice, Baroud focuses on on issues of decentralization and electoral law reform. He is known to abstain from engaging in feudal politics, and to focus instead on building the Lebanese civil society and Lebanese civil institutions.Reaching Lebanon's Disenfranchised Majority. (15 April 2011). In Now Lebanon. Retrieved on 9 January 2013. During his mandate as minister of interior, Baroud was credited for pushing forward a culture of responsibility and openness where he made himself easily accessible to all Lebanese citizens eager to share complaints and/or opinions, and was widely present in day-to-day activities of his subordinates. His actions resulted in an unpremeditated cultivation of a very attractive public image that he still possesses today.
Baroud was also credited with overseeing Lebanon's best-managed round of elections to date in 2009, which he orchestrated in one day instead of the conventional four weekends, a record in Lebanese history. This has earned him the First Prize of the prestigious United Nations Public Service Award where Lebanon was ranked first among 400 government administrations from all over the world by the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN).
On 26 May 2011, Baroud resigned from office as minister of interior and municipalities in Saad Hariri's government after an inter-party conflict developed between the Internal Security Forces and the Ministry of Telecommunications in Lebanon.. (27 May 2011). In The Daily Star. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
In 2010, Baroud was the recipient of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Charles T. Manatt Democracy Award, which recognizes extraordinary efforts to advance electoral participation and democratic values. He is also the recipient of the distinction of the French Legion of Honor or Légion d'Honneur, the highest decoration in France, ranking him as Chevalier, and of the Grand Cross of the Spanish Order of Civil Merit (Sp: Orden del Mérito Civil) rewarded for "extraordinary service for the benefit of Spain".Ziyad Baroud dans l'Ordre espagnol du Mérite. (12 May 2012). In Société des Membres de la Légion d'Honneur – Liban. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
Early life and education Baroud was born on 29 April 1970 in Jeita, Keserwan into Maronite family of Selim and Antoinette (née Salem). The first of two children, Baroud and his younger sister Maha were brought up in a middle-class civil household with no political ancestry, where both parents were high school teachers; their father a senior grade mathematics teacher and their mother an Arabic literature teacher. Baroud completed his high school education at Collège Saint Joseph – Antoura des Pères Lazaristes from which he graduated in 1988. He then attended the Faculty of Law at Saint Joseph University in Beirut from which he earned his Master's Degree in Law. He was admitted to the Beirut Bar Association in 1993.
From 1993 to 1996, Baroud worked as a trainee lawyer in Beirut in the cabinet of Ibrahim Najjar, who later served as minister of justice in the same government as Baroud. While working in the office of Najjar, Baroud contributed along with a handful of judges and fellow lawyers to the drafting of a legal monthly supplement in An-Nahar "Houqouq Annas" (Ar: حقوق الناس) or "People's Rights", the first of its kind, designed to familiarize people with judiciary rights and jargon and promote the implementation and modernization of Lebanese laws with the aim of bringing more justice to society. At the same time, Baroud was pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Paris X in Paris, France, a school that also graduated Nicolas Sarkozy and Dominique de Villepin among other influential personalities. Baroud is currently preparing his doctoral thesis on the subject of "Decentralization in Lebanon after the Taif Agreement", a topic that is one of his main subjects of expertise as well as one of the major lobbying points of his political agenda.
Career and policymaking activities Baroud held a number of academic posts as lecturer in two prestigious universities in Lebanon: His alma mater Université Saint Joseph (USJ) and Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (USEK). Furthermore, he sits today on the Board of Trustees of Notre Dame University.
With time, Baroud became more and more involved in key public actions that took him to the forefront of national, high-profile political activism, largely due to his expertise on many impending national topics, notably electoral law, decentralization and the constitution.
Electoral reform
In March 1996, Baroud founded, along with other activists, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), an independent, nonprofit organization specialized in the study of elections and electoral laws' impact on democracy.
In 2004, he was elected Secretary General of LADE to lead a group of more than 1,300 domestic electoral observers during the 2005 elections.
Two years later, he was chosen to serve as a board member of the Lebanese chapter of Transparency International (LTA). In 2005–2006, he was commissioned by the Prime Minister of the Republic Fuad Siniora along with eleven others to serve on a blue-ribbon commission headed by Former Minister Fouad Boutros to propose a draft for electoral law reform, this commission came to be familiarly known as the "Boutros Commission".
The Boutros Commission
In 2005, the new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora launched an independent commission on 8 August 2005 headed by Former Foreign Minister Fouad Boutros to study the dire issue of the 2000 electoral law and propose a change. The commission was named the "Lebanese National Commission on Electoral Law", more casually known as the "Boutros Commission." Twelve people, six Muslims and six Christians, were appointed, of which Baroud was chosen to be one of the key expert members. Other members included: Fouad Boutros (President), Ghaleb Mahmassany, Michel Tabet, Zouheir Chokr, Ghassan Abou Alwan, Nawaf Salam, Abdel Salam Sheaib, Fayez Al-Hajj Shahine, Paul Salem, Khaldoun Naja, and Arda Ekmekji.
The commission met for nine months and delivered a 129-article draft law for comprehensive electoral reform to the cabinet on 31 May 2006. The 129 articles detailed a myriad of reforms including lowering the voting age to 18 years, implementing an electoral list quota of 30% female candidates, an assessment of absentee balloting for Lebanese abroad, and the implementation of comprehensive and tight regulations for political campaigns and their financial spendings, among other things.A Guide to the Proposed Draft Law . (2007). In The Lebanese Transparency Association. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
Unfortunately, the cabinet ran out of time before it had a chance to vote on the Boutros Commission's proposal. Five weeks later, the July War broke out in July 2006 before the law could be sent to parliament. The subsequent deterioration of the political situation and closing of the legislature prevented any proposed reforms from being addressed, and remained pending.
Decentralization
Baroud worked as a research associate at the "Lebanese Center for Policy Studies", a Beirut-based think tank of which he is a board member today. LCPS aims to provide researched, politically neutral guidelines to serve policymaking. Baroud also consulted with the UNDP on local governance and decentralization from 2001 to 2008. He is currently the chairman of the "Governmental Committee of Decentralization" (Ar: اللجنة الخاصة باللامركزية), knowing that the topic of decentralization happens to be his Doctorate Thesis subject.
Minister of the interior and municipalities
Following the deadly clashes of May 2008, on 21 May 2008, figures from both the opposition and majority signed the Doha Agreement under the auspices of Qatar's foreign minister and prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, finally diffusing an 18-month crisis. The Doha negotiations resulted in the long-awaited election of General Michel Sleiman as President of the Lebanese Republic and the formation of the 70th national unity government led by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, composed of 30 ministers distributed among the majority (16 ministers), the opposition (11 ministers) and the president (3 ministers).
Newly elected President Michel Sleiman named Baroud as Minister of Interior and Municipalities.
Baroud served as Minister of Interior and Municipalities under two consecutive cabinets. The first cabinet led by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora in the 70th national unity government which lasted from 11 July 2008, until November 2009. Baroud successively served for a second term under Prime Minister Saad Hariri's cabinet which lasted from 9 Nov 2009 to 13 June 2011, though he had resigned on 26 May 2011.
Enforcing traffic laws
The first crackdown Baroud orchestrated was on traffic disobedience. Working closely with NGOs that promote road safety and injury prevention, notably the Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA) and Kun Hadi (Arabic for "Be Calm", as well as a play on the word "Hadi" which is the name of a young man who died in a speeding car accident and namesake of the organization), one of Baroud's first undertakings as minister was to impose traffic laws, including seatbelt enforcement and speed limits compliance. Resultantly, under his mandate, in the first year alone, the Ministry of Interior raised the number of traffic officers from 593 to 1,800.Baroud promises traffic law enforcement. (7 December 2009). In Now Lebanon. Retrieved 10 January 2013. 87% of motorists started complying with traffic lights. 32,323 illegal motorcycles were confiscated. A decline of 77% in car thefts was recorded.ISF announces drop in crime rates across country. (16 January 2010). In Daily Star Online. Retrieved 10 January 2013. All of the above were records in the history of the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (MoIM).
Time magazine published an article citing the importance of Baroud's undertakings regarding traffic laws: "Unable to solve the big problems facing the country, Ziad Baroud, Suleiman's choice to lead the powerful Ministry of the Interior, began focusing on problems that might actually make a difference in the lives of average Lebanese. In particular, the police began cracking down on the single biggest cause of death in the country: not terrorism, or war, but traffic accidents."Can a Broken-Windows Policy Work in Lebanon?. Butters, Andrew Lee. (19 April 2009). In TIME Magazine. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
Supporting freedom of association Being an avid civil society activist and a human rights campaigner, Baroud has been known to support and actively encourage the work of Lebanon's Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Thus, a major undertaking tackled by Baroud was signing off on counts of registration applications from NGOs that had been stacking up for years and never accorded registration permits. Baroud released a circular facilitating the registration of NGOs. The number of NGOs approved under Baroud rates as one of the highest in the history of the Interior Ministry.
Privacy of religious identity Baroud is the first government official to grant religious freedom of choice to Lebanese citizens on civil documents. Although Lebanese new identification cards issued post-civil war do not state citizens' religious affiliation, individual civil registry records still maintained the obligation for religious disclosure.Lebanon 'moves right way' on ID. (24 February 2009). In BBC. Retrieved 12 January 2013.