AMMAN — The outcomes of the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) of Human Rights forum by the Center for Defending Freedoms of
Journalists (CDFJ) organized last week, painted a bleak picture of the human
rights situation in the Kingdom and the lack of progress on carrying out CDFJ
recommendations.
اضافة اعلان
CDFJ is a Jordanian NGO that aims to educate journalists
about their rights, and defend freedom of the press. Organized by CDFJ in
cooperation with its Swedish partner IM, the UPR forum for human rights Discussed Jordan’s implementation of iecommendations,
necessary revisions and steps to take in future.
CDFJ founder, Nidal
Mansour, said that the forum seeks to move urgently to build understandings and
implementation mechanisms for the UPR’s recommendations, and to agree on a
joint action plan between government, national institutions and civil society
in the context of dealing with the upcoming UPR in 2023.
He said “time is
running out quickly, and unless we have the decisive will, we will face the
same previous failures.”
Mansour recalled the
previous forum in July 2021 where participants from civil society, national
institutions, and the government discussed mechanisms for building human rights
priorities in Jordan, and reviewed the human rights priorities document
submitted by civil society to the government in 2019.
Mansour said that the
measures taken at the national level do not enshrine a “human rights approach”,
as many legislations are not in line with international treaties and conventions
ratified by Jordan, policies are not supportive of human rights, and practices
are full of human rights violations and those committing them go unpunished.
Ali Al-Khawaldeh,
secretary general of the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs, stressed
at the opening of the forum the government’s continued support to enhance the
human rights situation in the country. He pointed to an important shift resulting
from the adoption of a system of new bills approved by the Royal Commission for
the Modernization of the Political System and referred to Parliament.
“Some human rights
reports are selective and exaggerated which are issued by some parties outside
the
UN framework,” he said.
“One of our national
priorities is human rights and we continue to partner with civil society, and
we have human rights units, and we work continuously training on and educating
about human rights issues,” Khawaldeh said.
Senior Human Rights
Adviser to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan, Christina
Meinecki, pointed to a need to identify the challenges of putting human rights
into practice, recognizing capacity gaps that may exist, and who can do something
about them, stressing that the government has a primary duty to “implement
human rights in Jordan for all, but we can and must all support these efforts”.
She said that 2022
will be important to “evaluate and accelerate the implementation of recommendations
which are still pending”. She called on civil society to evaluate
recommendations from other UN mechanisms, independent treaty-based committees
of experts the rights committee or the relevant committee, to eliminate all
forms of discrimination against women, or the Committee on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, as well as the objectives of sustainable development.
The UN official noted
that Jordan will submit a voluntary national review report (VNR) in 2022 on the
implementation of the 2030 sustainable development plan, saying that this could
contribute to assessing the implementation of the recommendations of the
universal periodic review.
Moaz al-Momani, a
lawyer, presented a summary of the status of implementation of the recommendations, based on an oversight report
issued by the CDFJ, indicating the absence of a consultative mechanism between
the government and civil society, especially during the last two years.
Nahla Momani, National Center for Human Rights (NCHR)
representative, speaking during the first session, said that during the
COVID-19 pandemic “rights have become the exception while restrictions are the
rule”, adding that no progress has been made in the areas of public freedoms,
freedom of expression, and the right of peaceful assembly, adding that “the
culture of dialogue is missing”.
Issam Rababah, from the Adalah Center, said that no progress
has been made in the Kingdom regarding the issues of physical safety, fair trials, and torture, adding that the
last ten years have seen an increase in torture cases, with no progress being
made at the legislative level on this issue. In fact, if anything he said, the
issue of physical safety has seen backwards momentum.
Mahmoud Hishmeh of East and West Centre, said that rights of
healthcare and education during the
pandemic period have witnessed an “unprecedented decline”, he called on the
government to standardize the evaluative framework. He said in healthcare and
education “no one has succeeded”, that even integrating human rights into the
national curriculum hasn’t succeeded.
Muhammad Al-Miqdadi, secretary-general of the National
Council for Family Affairs, said that the focus should be on education and its
quality, developing the philosophy of education, and integrating human rights
in the curriculum.
The event was held under
the patronage of the Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Musa
Al-Maaytah.
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