HRW lauds services to refugees, urges honouring human rights plan

AMMAN — Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday urged the government to honour the commitments made under the human rights plan, criticising amendments to law on associations and the “frequent gag orders” issued in 2016.

“Jordanian authorities should fulfil the national human rights plan’s agenda and ensure that freedom of association is strengthened rather than threatened,” an HRW statement quoted Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at the organisation, as saying. 

“Steps to prevent the media from reporting on sensitive issues restrict public debate and lead to a loss of trust in government institutions,” she warned.

In March 2016, the government proposed “sweeping amendments to the country’s association law that would make it harder to create and operate non-governmental organisations”, HRW said in its World Report 2017. 

In the 687-page World Report, HRW reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries.

“The government increasingly used press gag orders to prevent reporting on sensitive issues,” the watchdog said.

In March 2016, the authorities also presented the Comprehensive National Human Rights Plan, a 10-year initiative that calls for changes to numerous laws, policies and practices. 

“It includes positive changes, such as a commitment to allow suspects the right to a lawyer at the time of arrest and to move jurisdiction over crimes of torture and ill-treatment from the police court to regular courts,” the statement said.

In June, the authorities detained Amjad Qourshah, a university professor and popular Islamic preacher, in connection with an October 2014 video on his Facebook page in which he criticised Jordan’s participation in the US-led coalition against the Daesh terror group.

In August 2016, authorities detained Nahed Hattar, a writer, and charged him with insulting religion for sharing a cartoon on his Facebook page.

Hattar was murdered on September 25, 2016, while entering an Amman court.

In 2016, the authorities imposed gag orders on several news stories such as: a complaint by orphans against the Social Development Ministry; a street assault on an Egyptian worker in Jordan; a security operation in the northern city of Irbid in March; an attack on a General Intelligence Directorate office north of Amman; and the Qourshah and Hattar cases, HRW said.

In March last year, the Social Development Ministry issued amendments to the 2008 Law on Associations that “would place onerous restrictions on the establishment of non-governmental groups and grant the government legal authority to dissolve groups on vague grounds or deny their ability to obtain foreign funding without justification”, the watchdog added. 

The amendments are still under consultation and have not been submitted to Parliament.

With over 656,000 Syrians registered as refugees in Jordan in 2016, the authorities in February announced plans to allow new legal work opportunities for Syrian refugees, and by November had issued at least 28,000 work permits for Syrians, the statement said. 

About 80,000 Syrian children in Jordan were not in formal education, but the Education Ministry took steps to address the obstacles, such as relaxing documentation requirements, creating spaces for up to 50,000 more Syrian students, and establishing a “catch-up” programme.

On June 21, 2016, a car bomb attack on a Jordanian military base serving refugees along the northeastern border with Syria killed seven personnel, prompting the authorities to classify the Jordan-Syria border as a closed military zone and halt aid except for water to nearly 80,000 Syrians stuck in the border zone. 

Authorities allowed the resumption of aid in late November at a new distribution point 7km northwest of one of the refugee settlements, the HRW statement said.