The year 2025 marks fifty years since the start of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war which tore the country apart. The heavy toll of the protracted conflict includes over 150,000 deaths, 17,000 missing and disappeared (official report), 300,000 gravely injured, and more than 900,000 internally displaced persons. To this day, concerned parties in Lebanon continue searching for ways to heal the wounds of the war, address unresolved cases of disappearance, and immunize the next generation against future internal conflict.
 
It is in this context that the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS), in collaboration with the Forum for Memory and Future (FMF), produced two papers in the fall of 2023, examining key aspects of the post-war healing process, namely the work and challenges facing the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared and the unresolved debate over how to address the civil war period in Lebanon's national history curriculum.
 
Today, LCPS with the FMF are publishing the first of these two studies, “Dealing with the Past in Lebanon: Supporting the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared,” co-authored by Christelle Barakat and Makram Ouaiss. Intended for publication in 2024, it was delayed due to the ongoing war.