AMMAN
— The designation of civil space in Jordan as “repressed” by an international
rights group was received with mixed reactions from figures concerned with the
issue, with all agreeing that the situation can be remedied.
اضافة اعلان
A
November report by Civicus Monitor, a Geneva-based global civil society
alliance, cited a series of developments in 2021, including the dissolution of
the
Jordan Teachers Syndicate (JTS) and the consequent sacking of teachers from
their government jobs, internet access restrictions, and muzzling activists and
civil society actors.
“In
November 2021, the governor of the capital Amman prevented the JTS from holding
a press conference that was meant to discuss several issues. Additionally,
activists from the union have faced ongoing intimidation, harassment, and
arbitrarily (sic) detentions.
Freedom of expression is also under threat, with
internet freedoms severely restricted in the country.
Authorities have limited
access to information through blocking the internet, including social media,
when there are politically sensitive developments and issuing gagging orders,”
the report stated.
In
response, Jordanian activists and a lawmaker acknowledged that the civil
society situation in Jordan needs improvement but some considered the ranking
unfair.
MP Saleh Al-Armouti, a veteran jurist, blamed the government for the damage to its
reputation through restrictions on the internet, the freedom of the press, and
civil society, “especially as security considerations are dominant,” he said.
“We
have seen people arrested for protesting against the gas and energy-for-water
deals (with Israel)," the Islamist lawmaker said, charging that the
security agencies had mistreated those arrested.
"This
matter will have consequences for Jordan in its dealings with the international
community,” Armouti said. He added that the orders issued under the Defense Law
are against the Constitution because they suspend vital civil laws.
Armouti
agreed with the report in criticizing the dissolution of the JTS, describing it
as “unconstitutional”, but noted that the government had walked back on its
earlier move to fire teachers.
Director
of the
Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ), Nidal Mansour, who
was quoted in the Civicus report, said the deterioration in the state of press
freedoms is obvious, agreeing with Armouti that the authorities took advantage
of the pandemic to impose more restrictions on public freedoms and that there
have been violations of human rights in its response to protests.
Mansour
said that the drop in the ranking from “obstructed” to “repressed” comes at a
time when the government only offers lip service when it talks about freedoms.
Noureddine
Nadim, spokesperson for the JTS, told
Jordan News that the drop in ranking “is
not good news and will have consequences for Jordan at the economic level and
with its international engagements”.
He
said that what happened with the teachers syndicate was a "short-term
crisis that will pass and can be resolved if all listen to the voice of wisdom
and reason", noting that the decision to return dismissed teachers to
their jobs was a step in the right direction.
For
Commissioner-General of the
National Center for Human Rights Alaa Al-Armouti,
the use of the term "repressed" is unfair because it could be
associated with repressive measures such as torture, which is not true in the
case of Jordan, although there have been unlawful arrests of citizens. This drop
in ranking does not reflect reality since it contradicts rankings in other
democracy indexes, he said.
The
Civicus Monitor has designated the state of civil space in Iraq and Egypt as
“closed”, Israel and the US as “obstructed” and Turkey as “repressed”.
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