Helem is a completely legal organization. According to the Lebanese law of association, any non-government organization can register through providing a notice of association (3ilm wa khabar) to the Ministry of Interior. Contrary to popular opinion, organizations do not need "permission" from the Ministry in order to be considered legal.

Furthermore, the Ministry is obligated by law to issue an immediate receipt with a registration number to the organization submitting its public notice. The only legal reasons justifying a rejection of public notice are:

• The documentation provided in the public notice is incomplete
• The organization's field of action and principles violate or compromise one of the following:
• National security
• The sovereignty of the state
• Public morality

As of yet, Helem has not received its receipt of registration from the Ministry of Interior, which is a clear violation of the law from the side of the state and has no bearing on the legality of Helem.

It is important to note that several organizations working on human rights and democracy had faced the same situation in the past, most notably being the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections that sent its notice of association in 1996 and only received the "number" in 2005.

Another organization is ADDL (Association pour la Defense des Droits et des Libertes) a Lebanese non-profit organization founded in 1995 by Lebanese lawyers and jurists, to promote and defend fundamental freedoms and human rights in Lebanon. ADDL was able to obtain its "number" after filing a lawsuit in the State Council (Majlis Shoura El Dawleh).

Does Helem violate public morals?
None of Helem's activities violate any existing laws, including the law of public morality. In 2006, following the celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia a complaint was filed against Helem accusing it of "public indecency and corrupting the youth". The prosecutor dropped the investigation for lack of crime.