Lebanon’s parliament on Tuesday abolished the death penalty, making it the first country in the Arab world to replace the sentencing with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor.

Axar.az reports, citing The Associated Press, that the tiny Mediterranean country has committed to an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004. However, dozens of death sentences since then have been issued, but later suspended or commuted.

A majority of Lebanon’s 128-member parliament voted in favor of ending the death penalty, with the exception of the parliamentary bloc of Hezbollah.

Justice Minister Adel Nassar, who was in Parliament, called it a “historic step” for the country.

Rights groups that have called for formalizing the moratorium or ending the death penalty altogether have also celebrated the vote.

Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon Researcher at Human Rights Watch, says Lebanon is “marking a final break from a cruel sentence that should never be imposed.”

It should be noted that Lebanon has maintained an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004.