A judge who changed position from inside the system
Kawas became publicly associated with arguments against capital punishment. A death-penalty source cites his article titled, in translation, 'Execution does not achieve justice, and demanding its abolition is a civilized phenomenon.'
The strongest point is biographical and moral: he had been a murder-court judge who issued death sentences, then changed position after concluding that execution did not reduce criminality.
Human rights, civil peace, and judicial independence
On December 11, 1990, Kawas spoke at a Human Rights in Lebanon seminar in Saida, linking rights to conscience, justice, freedom, equality, and dignity.
His later public record also connects him with civil peace, secularism, freedom of opinion, and collective judicial action for a judiciary treated as an authority rather than a mere administrative function.