Virtual event calls for instilling gender-sensitive laws

AMMAN — Former judiciary officials and activists called for the introduction of laws that are gender-sensitive, especially for women who are standing trial on major criminal charges.

The calls were made during a virtual event that was held last week by Solidarity Is Global Institute (SIGI) as part of its coalition’s activities, which seek to tackle the death penalty from a gender perspective.

The event was titled: “Can violence against women be considered as a motive for committing crimes punishable by the death penalty?”

The coalition titled “Life” is part of SIGI’s Rule of Law and Fair Trials from a Gender Perspective Project, which is supported by the European Union and seeks to end the death penalty in Jordan under the motto: “The right to life and justice for all”.

“The event aims to tackle new methods to ensure criminal justice for women and girls who are standing trial on major crimes or others who were sentenced to death,” SIGI Executive Director Asma Khader said during the event.  

Khader added that the meeting, which was attended by former judges, sociologists and legal experts, also called for introducing gender-sensitive legislation into the national justice system.

Activists have argued over the years that women standing trial on charges that could land them the death penalty do not get the same legal, financial and mental support from their families as men who are in the same situation.  

The participants called during the event for establishing a national framework that works to protect gender-based violence victims and survivors, while providing the necessary legal assistance to women and girls who are implicated in major offences.

The activists and former officials also pointed out the importance of conducting “mental health evaluations for women who are sentenced to death and analyses about their surroundings to determine if they were subjected to any form of violence or pressure”.

Currently, there are 19 women on death row in Jordan. The last time a woman was executed in Jordan was in February 2015, when convict Sajida Rishawi, an Iraqi national, was executed.

Rishawi, aged 44, was convicted by the State Security Court in September 2006 of plotting terror attacks against three hotels in Amman in November 2005, which left 60 people dead and around 90 injured.

The first woman to receive the death sentence in a terror-related trial in Jordan, Rishawi was convicted of possessing explosives with illicit intent and plotting subversive acts that led to the death of individuals.