Lebanon’s parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, a move that would make it the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment.

A majority of MPs in the 128-seat parliament backed the measure on Tuesday, while Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc voted against it.

The legislation will now go to the cabinet before being passed to President Joseph Aoun for signing. The government has already expressed its support for the measure.

Lebanon has not carried out an execution since January 2004, although courts have continued to hand down death sentences. Rights groups estimate that more than 78 people remain on death row.

Under the new legislation, capital punishment will be replaced with life imprisonment with hard labour. However, the legislation does not yet set out in detail how the new sentence would be enforced.

Hard labour is already written into Lebanese law but has rarely been implemented in recent years. The country’s financial crisis and overcrowded prisons have limited the authorities’ resources and capacity.

The latest legislation follows years of campaigning by civil society groups and lawyers for the removal of capital punishment from Lebanese law.

“We cannot solve a crime with a crime or end violence with violence,” Oragit Younan told the BBC.

As co-founder of the Lebanese Association for Civil Rights, she led a nearly three-decade campaign to abolish the death penalty in Lebanon.

“We are in a war, and people [have been] killed every day, so even in this situation, we can fight, we can struggle for human rights, and we can win. We can be a model for others,” she said.

Tuesday’s vote in parliament follows more than two decades of a de facto moratorium on executions. An execution required a decree signed by the president, prime minister and justice minister – but no such decree has been signed since 2004.

Under Lebanese law, the death penalty could previously be imposed for some of the country’s most serious offences, including aggravated murder, certain terrorism-related crimes resulting in death, treason, espionage and offences against state security.

Previous attempts to abolish the death penalty have failed, including legislation introduced in parliament in 2004 and a proposal from the justice ministry in 2008.

Lebanon’s move comes as the use of the death penalty remains contested elsewhere in the Middle East.

Jordan resumed executions in June, carrying out its first since 2017.

In Israel, its parliament has approved legislation that allows for the expansion of the circumstances in which capital punishment can be imposed.

Israeli MPs passed a new law in May to impose the death penalty and conduct public trials for those involved in the Hamas-led attacks and mass hostage-taking in Israel in October 2023.

Elsewhere, the UN human rights chief has said he is alarmed by the rise in executions in Iran, with capital punishment continuing to be used “to instil fear among the population and suppress dissent”.

In Iran, at least 56 people had been executed on national security-related charges since 19 March, including 27 in cases linked to January’s nationwide anti-government protests, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said earlier this month.