Change in the Middle East often comes more from violence than from virtue. So on Tuesday, when Lebanon’s parliament abolished the death penalty – the first country in the region to do so – the action could allow the tiny Mediterranean nation to set an example by its commitment to the right to life.

“Lebanon is regaining its pioneering role in the region as a defender of human rights,” Justice Minister Adel Nassar said after the vote, adding that lawmakers chose “to combat murder rather than resort to capital punishment.”

At the least, Lebanon’s moral courage marks a sharp contrast to much of the Middle East. Last year, Iran more than doubled its executions while Israel, whose last judicial execution was that of Adolf Eichmann in 1962, approved hanging for those convicted of killing “with the intent to deny the existence of the State of Israel,” which appears targeted only at Palestinians. 

In June, Jordan resumed executions, carrying out its first since 2017. In Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the practice continues apace.

Lebanon’s last execution was 22 years ago, but courts have continued to issue dozens of death sentences. What helped lawmakers decide to officially end capital punishment was a new willingness to stand up to Hezbollah. The elected representatives of the powerful Iran-backed militant group opposed the measure. The group has been weakened after its 2023 attacks on Israel that resulted in a military pounding by the Jewish state on the group’s positions in southern Lebanon.

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Yet a public shift against the death penalty began more than a quarter century ago following Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. Abolitionists worked hard to persuade lawmakers one by one, arguing that capital punishment “is plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error,” as one activist put it. 

About three-quarters of the world’s nations have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Lebanon has become the 129th, taking a stand even as it endures a war within its borders and the Middle East awaits an end to the Iran-American conflict. There might be no better time to assert the sanctity of life.