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Ziyad Baroud is the former Minister of Interior and Municipalities of the Republic of Lebanon between 2008 and 2011 in two cabinets. A court lawyer and arbitrator, he lectures at the Faculty of Law of Université Saint Joseph. He served as the chairperson of the Special (governmental) Commission on Decentralization, which prepared the draft law that is currently under discussion by parliament.
For decades now, decentralization has been a recurring theme in Lebanese politics. That it is “administrative” does not make it any less “political” in a country where even minor technicalities can easily turn into major controversies. Yet decentralization is still perceived as one of the key reforms that has yet to come about.
