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AMMAN — The inflation rate in the first 11 months of 2017 increased by 3.3 per cent, while it stood at 0.9 per cent in the same period last year, the Department of Statistics (DoS) announced on Wednesday.

DoS figures, cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, showed that the main categories that led to the increase were transportation (13 per cent), health (8.7 per cent), tobacco and cigarettes (8 per cent), vegetables and legumes (5.2 per cent) and rents (2.5 per cent).

Meanwhile, the main items that saw a price decrease are meat and poultry (5.5 per cent), fruits and nuts (3.2 per cent) and clothes (2.9 per cent).

AMMAN — The lack of a government decision to extend or terminate a partial exemption from sales tax on hybrid cars has sent the local market into chaos, a sector leader has said. 

Jordan Free Zone Investor Commission (JFZIC) President Nabeel Rumman said that dealers and ordinary customers are now at a standstill, reluctant to make any business decision, pending the government’s final say, especially, as the exemption period ends by yearend.  

Hybrid cars pay a reduced special sales tax of 25 per cent of its price, instead of 55 per cent for regular fuel cars. The decision came into effect in 2012 and has been renewed every year henceforth. 

People are also given the choice to de-registrate old fully gasoline-operated cars (10 years or older), hand them to authorities and receive a partial exemption from the special sales tax to register a new hybrid car, on which the tax levied is 12.5 per cent, instead of 40 per cent for regular cars.  

“We urge the government to extend it for next year and we have requested that in a memo we forwarded to Prime Minister Hani Mulki because we believe it is in the best interest of the people and the country.” 

Both kinds of exemption, JFZIC chief said, have encouraged middle-income people to buy this type of vehicle due to its low cost and fuel-effectiveness, while the country would see less fume emission from vehicles as hybrid cars are environment friendly.  

“Hybrid cars are the better choice in the absence of a decent public transport system,” he added.

Besides, he said, hybrid cars are not fully exempted from the tax, as every car costs from around JD6,000 to JD10,000 as a sales tax. “In the past 11 months, JD240 million was earned in Treasury revenues just from hybrid cars.”

According to Rumman, “every year, the extension decision is made at the end of September, but this year is different”, Rumman noted.

“Even if there was a hike in the fees, the government should inform us, so people, including dealers, would know what to do,” Rumman said.

If the exemption is not extended, the difference in the value of the tax translates into additional cost on the buyer and this will make people stop importing or buying cars from the Duty Free Zone, which will harm the business, the sector leader said. 

If the tax is 55 per cent again, the demand will decrease by 60 or 70 per cent, which will slash public revenues by JD40 or JD50 million, he added.

AMMAN — Minister of Environment Yaseen Khayyat is heading the Jordanian delegation to the “One Planet Summit” in Paris where delegations from over 100 countries and representatives of international organisations in the environmental sector have convened, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

During the summit, participants will discuss ways to find the necessary sources of funding to accelerate the process of introducing eco-friendly economic and technological systems, and to renew the commitment of developed countries to meet their financial and technical obligations towards developing countries.

A statement by the Environment Ministry said that Jordan has adopted an integrated policy on climate change until 2020 which serves as a guide for the work of the National Climate Change Committee. The summit witnessed a number of initiatives including the World Bank’s pledge to stop funding oil and gas exploration projects by 2019, and the announcement of a 12 billion euro allocation to support green investment by 2020.

AMMAN — The Lower House Financial Committee headed by MP Ahmad Safadi has proposed removing the four fils price hike for households consuming 300 kilowatts or less, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

Safadi stressed that this recommendation would be better than a previous agreement targeting only households consuming up to160kW in a month. During a meeting held by the committee to discuss the Energy Ministry’s budget in the presence of Energy Minister Saleh Kharabsheh, the MP said that the committee is keen on making any proposals and recommendations that will contribute to reducing financial burdens on citizens and to protect the middle and lower income classes.

Safadi added that the committee is aware of the challenges faced by the Energy Ministry in light of the regional situation.

AMMAN — The Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) - Legal Aid on Monday launched a toolkit to address gender-based violence (GBV) in Jordan, aimed at initiating a social dialogue that can foster positive changes in attitudes towards women and girls.

Lana Zananiri, gender unit manager at the ARDD, told The Jordan Times that “our main aim is to achieve access to justice regardless of status, and an important component is an environment that supports women and girls and supports eliminating violence in all of its forms”.

While she expressed hopes for the toolkit to be “a useful guide for all practitioners and decision makers in moving forward with this supportive environment”, she stressed that “the toolkit is not the end of our work. The ARDD is building on the foundation the toolkit provides by continuing to engage key actors and stakeholders to reach our shared goals”.

The guide, which comes as part of the UN-funded “Know Her Rights” project for gender equality, contains measures that will “contribute to the promotion of legislative and policy changes towards the elimination of GBV and to the promotion of gender mainstreaming in several sectors”, a ARDD official told The Jordan Times.

“Although the toolkit targeted stakeholders in the government, media, education and health sectors for them to take action and promote increased gender sensitivity in the provision of information and services in their sectors, it has been purposely written avoiding the use of any technical terminologies to enhance wide dissemination of its content and messages among different audiences,” the official noted.

“The ARDD hopes that this toolkit will serve as a mechanism that educates and sensitises targeted stakeholders on the multiple forms and impact of violence against women and girls, as well as supporting the participatory approach based on human rights and advocacy,” the source added, noting that the toolkit will also be used for the production of training materials for future projects of the ARDD and other civil society organisations (CSOs).

The content of the guide is the result of a project that incorporated consultations with stakeholders representing the different sectors of society, including international NGOs, CSOs, and representatives from the government, media, and education sectors.

“After the ARDD’s research and legal teams drafted the toolkit, a significant number of gender specialists and experts provided their recommendations and feedback to facilitate the understanding and implementation of the toolkit,” sources from the ARDD said, noting that “together, these actors have a significant public outreach and have the ability to influence societal norms and overall public policy”.

The first section of the guide addresses the legal gaps affecting the issue of gender, and the “state of silence” regarding topics such as domestic violence, honour and partial rights.

The rest of the guide is focused on recommendations on how to address violence against females in the targeted sectors, with evidence based information on how actors in these sectors can play a role in eliminating GBV.

The guide also includes key messages, boxes outlining commendable campaigns and initiatives, policy highlights, and checklists and activities to promote gender sensitivity.

The toolkit will be available on the ARDD’s website as well as its partners’ websites, and hard copies will be distributed among stakeholders such as representatives of local NGOs, government, media, education and health officials. 

AMMAN — Foreign Ministry Secretary General Zaid Lozi on Tuesday met a visiting Brazilian delegation to get a firsthand look into the Kingdom’s longstanding record of hosting refugees and addressing relevant challenges.

On the refugee issue, the delegates lauded Jordan’s key role, considered the world’s top refugee-hosting nation, which turned into an exemplary model to follow suit, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

This visit is also crucial to Brazil as it began hosting large number of refugees from neighbourign countries’, in a bid to address this humanitarian crisis and to maintain the refugees’ dignity, rights, and freedoms, according to Petra.

AMMAN  — Ambassadors of EU member states on Wednesday joined the EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana in a field visit to companies eligible to export under the EU-Jordan rules of origin agreement at the Sahab Development Zone.

The companies, which represent some of Jordan's most key sectors, including chemicals, manufacturing and textile, are currently benefiting from preferential rules, which allow them to export to the EU states more easily, according to a statement by the EU delegation to Jordan.  

During the visit, EU ambassadors discussed with the factory managers and employees the opportunities provided by the rules of origin scheme, and exchanged views on solutions to some of the challenges they face when exporting to the EU, the statement said.

As Jordan becomes an increasingly important trading partner for the EU, the rules of origin agreement seeks to help companies access a new market, improve the quality of their products and create new jobs, both for Jordanians and Syrian refugees, the statement said. 

EU Ambassador Fontana underlined the importance of the agreed-upon rules of origin scheme as being "one of the ways to encourage the private sector to diversify and to mitigate the effects of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Jordanian economy".

"We are very pleased to have been able to meet with the three companies eligible to export under the rules of origin agreement. They represent the dynamism and the future of Jordanian industry. We were happy to hear personal stories about how the scheme has allowed companies to grow and create more decent jobs, both for Jordanians and Syrians," Fontana said at the end of the visit.

In July 2016, the EU and Jordan agreed on a simplification of the rules of origin applicable in their bilateral trade which allows producers in Jordan to use an alternative set of rules of origin for exports to the EU under certain conditions, according to the statement.

These include the requirement that production takes place in one of the 12 governorates in Jordan and includes the creation of jobs for 15 per cent of Syrian refugees in the first two years, rising to 25 per cent after three years. 

The new scheme applies to 52 different product categories including textiles and garments, engineering and electrical products, chemical products, plastic products, and furniture and wood products, the statement concluded. 

AMMAN — Arab parliamentarians and women’s rights activists on Wednesday urged Arab countries to abolish laws that allow sexual assault offenders to avoid punishment for their crimes.

The parliamentarians and activists underlined that several Arab countries, including Jordan, Morocco and Lebanon, recently scrapped provisions in their penal codes that allowed sexual offenders to escape punishment, calling on other countries in the region to follow suit.

They made their remarks during a meeting organised by Equality Now, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the coalition of Arab women parliamentarians to combat violence against women and the Arab Women Organisation (AWO).

During the meeting, Minister of Social Development Hala Lattouf highlighted that strong partnership between legislators and activists pave the way for amending and abolishing laws that discriminate against women’s rights.

“Violence against women and girls is neither justifiable nor acceptable and needs to be eliminated by all means, mainly by scrapping pieces of legislation that allow this,” Lattouf said.

She underlined that Jordan has put in place several laws that protect women’s rights, which also seek to economically empower women.

The minister stressed that, just as the legal system protects women, it also seeks to impose punishment on offenders.

Deputy Wafa Bani Mustafa, head of the coalition, said that 13 Arab states are currently members of the coalition, which targets laws that discriminate against women.

“Today’s meeting seeks to focus on laws in the Arab region that allow sexual assault offenders to escape punishment. Progress in this domain has been achieved in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq and we are hopeful that other countries will follow suit,” Bani Mustafa said.

Based on a recommendation by a Royal committee and the endorsement of the government, the Lower House in August voted to abolish the controversial Article 308 of the Penal Code, which became effective on November 1 after the law was published in the Official Gazette.

“We are hopeful now that Iraq will also do the same as Jordan and other Arab countries and scrap laws that allow sexual assault offenders to avoid punishment,” the MP noted.

Intisar Jabouri, a deputy in the Iraqi parliament, said that efforts are now under way to scrap such articles in the Iraqi penal code.

“We are now gathering momentum to have Article 398 in the Iraqi penal code number 111 abolished,” she told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the meeting.

Meanwhile, Hasna Mansour from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy said that female parliamentarians and women’s rights activists from Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq and Palestine are attending the meeting to lobby for further actions that ensure the protection of women.

“Now we are also pushing Palestine to scrap laws that allow sexual assailants to escape punishment in certain cases,” Mansour told The Jordan Times.

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP — Some 100 residents of the Zaatari refugee camp on Tuesday enjoyed a day of cultural activity as part of the Karama human rights' film festival held this year under the theme “Give life a chance".

Organised by Oxfam in Jordan in collaboration with ma3mal 612 for ideas, the event, titled "Cinema in refuge”, included the screening of films on human rights and discussions among the participants on the daily challenges faced by refugees in the camp, with a special focus on education.

“These films really revive our spirit of hope. This is our suffering, some of our children are forbidden of receiving education because of their situation or because of their families,” said Rana, one of the women who participated in the activity (all names were changed to preserve the interviewees' privacy), adding "I urge all the parents in the camp to encourage their children to receive and complete their education."

Screening films that reflect the reality of the lives of Syrian refugees, the activity also aimed to give the participants a chance to voice their concerns and the problems they face in a refugee camp setting.

“In the camp, there are many families who forbade their daughters from going to school, which is wrong. NGOs always try to spread awareness on the importance of education, on early marriage and this encourages many families to allow their daughters to be enrolled in schools and complete their education,” Adnan, another mother, said.

“Syria is a civilised country and we want our children, especially girls, to learn and get education. Many of our children missed out opportunities in education at the beginning of the conflict.  Syrians are creative: in the camp, they have shown many skills and done a lot of nice work in tailoring, food making, drawing and painting," she highlighted, adding "we proved ourselves and our strengths despite our situation”.

The discussion also covered the main messages the Syrian refugees wanted to convey to the world and to decision makers in order to improve their situation.

“The formal education our children receive in the school itself is not enough, many of our children do not know how to read or write properly. Here in the camp, there are some centres where our children can receive remedial classes after they finish school. These centres are the main thing that supports our children's education and we need them to expand across the camp,” another participant stressed.

While issues such as the limited educational opportunities available to Syrians especially in higher education were raised, participants also commended the various trainings they received and the source of income they provided them and their families. 

“I participated in one of the sewing courses offered by one of the NGOs in the camp. I learned how to make nice pillow covers and how to sew professionally," said Lana, noting that the training also served to help the less privileged in the camp, as they distributed the covers they created to the most vulnerable people in the camp.

One of the moderators of the discussion, Ghada Salem, economic justice policy adviser at Oxfam, said: “Education is important to find decent jobs. People in the camp especially women and breadwinners want to have their own small businesses inside the camp to be able to live in dignity and gain income to provide for their families, as it is difficult for them to go outside the camp to work and leave their children for long hours.” 

For his part, Safi Al Sakran from the Karama team said: “Struggles and difficulties are always in our lives and we should all move forward to find good opportunities to 'give life a chance'.”

AMMAN —  A training programme aimed at improving the skills of social and health professionals working with Syrians and Jordanians conducted its last session this week, 9 months after its inception in April 2017.

Implemented by IOM, the UN migration agency, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development, the training sought to help enhance the psychological support provided to Syrian refugees and their host communities in Jordan, according to its organisers.

“To include the mental health component in their work, front-line officers need to be trained on basic techniques such as deescalation of a violent situation, the principle of ‘do no harm’, survivor centred approaches when dealing with Gender Based Violence survivors and children who have survived violence,”  said Marie Adèle Salem, the session’s trainer.

The last of four sessions conducted throughout the year, the three-day training focused on psychosocial and mental health support, as a main component in the workers’ interventions.

Participants in the workshop included professionals from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Development, and other governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in various fields including protection and healthcare.

“The training will help me to do more and to know how to act in front of a survivor of violence,” said Linda Samarna, a translator for the government’s Counter Trafficking Unit ahead of the session, adding “we often deal with cases of violence in our work.”

During the session, the participants shared their personal experiences in the field of mental health and psychosocial support, and exchanged on the common challenges they face at their workplace. They were also briefed on self awareness, self help and self-care skills.

According to a study conducted by the UNHCR under the title "Assessment of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Needs of Displaced Syrians in Jordan", 53.9 per cent of Syrian refugees living in camps and 49.4 per cent of non-camp respondents expressed feelings of anger and loss of control related to mental trauma. 

“The success of emergency programmes also relies on the mental wellness of the beneficiaries, as it is necessary to build resilience and develop positive coping mechanism,” said Laura Sisniega, IOM Jordan’s communication officer, noting that “the Syrian crisis has made it more challenging for social workers to understand the full range of services available in terms of mental health and psychosocial support. The training has served to improve a network among the relevant actors by sharing information about the services available both for Syrian refugees and Jordanians.”

The training came in line with the efforts exerted by a number of national organisations such as Nour Hussein Foundation and the Jordan River Foundation, in addition to international organisations and NGOs, which have been delivering services to tackle the psychological impact of the Syrian crisis.

Funded by the government of Italy through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the training is part of a regional project implemented in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria which aims at building a sustainable and harmonised response in addressing the psychosocial needs of internally displaced persons, refugees and communities affected by the Syrian conflict, an organisers’ statement said.