A/HRC/13/30 Lebanon and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) concerning non-Palestinian asylum-seekers, signed on 9 September 2003, allows foreigners entering Lebanon in an irregular manner to submit asylum applications to UNHCR. If the criteria of the memorandum are met, UNHCR accepts the asylum application and the Government issues a circulation permit, valid for three months and free of charge. If UNHCR grants the asylum-seeker refugee status, a six-month circulation permit is issued, renewable once for three months, so that UNHCR can identify a resettlement country or arrange for voluntarily repatriation. 13. The recommendation made by UNHCR dated 18 December 2006, calling on States to consider displaced Iraqis from central and southern Iraq as refugees under international protection, regardless of their means of entry, contradict the memorandum. As Lebanon is not bound by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and is not a country of refuge lacking the capacity to take in additional asylum-seekers, it does not implement these recommendations. 14. National laws allow Lebanon to detain persons liable for deportation with judicial approval. Such detention is not arbitrary. Lebanese courts, in virtually all cases, impose minimum prison sentences of one month on humanitarian grounds on foreigners entering the country in an irregular manner. The delay in carrying out deportation is due to factors such as the failure of embassies to follow up on the situation of their nationals and the lack of diplomatic representation of some countries. The Government is currently drafting a proposal on establishing a mechanism to deal with this situation. Deportees are entitled to appeal against decisions of expulsion, taking ordinary and extraordinary recourse, including a plea for clemency. The Government only returns foreigners, including asylum-seekers, who have signed a “voluntary return” form. Lebanon does not conduct large-scale deportations. It is an independent sovereign State which applies its own laws, international public law and the provisions of treaties consistent with its own interests and, first and foremost, that of its citizens. With regard to refugees, Lebanon acts within the scope of the applicable laws and memoranda of understanding. 15. In a note verbale dated 17 November 2009, the Japanese Government submitted comments related to Opinion No. 9/2009 (Japan).6 It stated that, while everyone has the right to express their opinions, which is clearly guaranteed as a fundamental human right in the Japanese legal system, no one is allowed to commit a crime for the purpose of expression of such opinions. The Greenpeace activists Messrs. Sato and Suzuki, the subjects of Opinion No. 9/2009, could not be acquitted of charges of breaking into a residence and theft on the basis of their activities as these were beyond the limitations of article 19 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The criminal investigation into the accusation brought by them against the crew members of a whaling research ship was not obstructed by their detention. The prosecutor concluded there was not sufficient evidence for the prosecution of the crew. There was no reason to consider the detention of Mr. Sato and Mr. Suzuki as arbitrary, as it was determined by a deliberate judgement by a fair court strictly observing the requirements of the Japanese criminal justice system. The Working Group had disregarded the appraisal of the facts and evidence and the application and interpretation of domestic law by the judiciary. The Government will ensure that Messrs. Sako and Suzuki continue to be subject to proceedings which meet international standards of fairness and that their rights of defence at their trial are fully respected. 6 GE.10-10294 Ibid. 9