Justice Ministry's Higher Consultative Committee to Interior Ministry: Civil Marriage is Legal

The Higher Committee for Consultations at the Justice Ministry responded on Wednesday to inquiries submitted by the Interior Ministry on the legality of civil marriage in Lebanon.

The committee reiterated its support for civil marriage in Lebanon.

The Interior Ministry had sent the inquiries to the Committee at the request of caretaker Justice Minister Shkakib Qortbawi.

The Lebanese Supreme Council in the Ministry of Justice took an unanimous decision in February to consider legal all civil marriages conducted in Lebanon by people that do not have any religious affiliation.

Legalizing civil marriage in Lebanon has sparked debate among the country's political and religious authorities with President Michel Suleiman advocating it and Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani rejecting it.

Qabbani issued a fatwa against moves to legalize civil marriages inside the country, where couples of different faiths have to travel abroad to tie the knot.

Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish announced in January they had wed as a secular couple by having their religious sects legally struck from their family registers under an article dating from the 1936 French mandate.

Suleiman has since lobbied for a civil marriage law as a "very important step in eradicating sectarianism and solidifying national unity."