Articles for Jordan

On the evening of Tuesday, April 9, 2024, Jordanian security forces arrested the Syrian youth, Atiya Mohammed Salim, and his colleague Abdulrahman Al-Sheikh as they were on their way to film a solidarity demonstration with the Palestinian people against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. This incident occurred in the Rabia area of Amman on the eve of Eid al-Fitr because they were students studying at the Faculty of Media at Yarmouk University in Jordan. Atiya was taken to the Shmeisani Security Center. 

Alkarama strongly condemns Jordan's extradition of Emirati businessman Khalaf Abdulrahman Al Rumaithi – sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in connection with the so-called "UAE 94" case by the Abu Dhabi authorities - despite the risk of torture and ill-treatment and in flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture to which Jordan is a party. 

On March 14, 2019, the UN Human Rights Council formally adopted Jordan’s outcome report in the framework of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which took place on November 8. Jordan received a total of 226 recommendations made by other United Nations Member States aimed at improving the human rights situation in the country.

(Geneva, February 4) – Alkarama has requested the urgent intervention of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the case of Ismail Al Wahwah, a 60-year-old Jordanian-Australian citizen who has been sentenced to two years in prison for publications he shared on Facebook, in violation of his right to freedom of opinion and expression.

(Geneva, November 21, 2018) – Last month, Alkarama requested the urgent intervention of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in the case of Yousef Issa, a 25-year-old Jordanian-American citizen who remains detained without charge since his arrest on July 25, 2018. Despite this intervention, Yousef Issa remains arbitrarily detained nearly four months after his arrest.

Background on the case

On November 12, 2018, the United Nations Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) adopted a draft report following the review of Jordan’s human rights record on November 8.

(Geneva, October 11, 2018) – Alkarama has requested the urgent intervention of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in the case of Ismail Al Wahwah, a 60-year-old Jordanian-Australian citizen who remains detained without charge since he was arrested at Amman airport on July 25, 2018.

UPDATE: Abdul Wahab Al Jaghbir was released without charge on September 10, 2018.

(Geneva, June 20, 2018) – On June 19, 2018, Alkarama requested the urgent intervention of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in the case of Abdul Wahab Al Jaghbir, a 33-year-old Lebanese-Jordanian citizen who has been missing since his arrest at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman on May 31, 2018.

Geneva (April 25, 2018) – On December 22, 2017 and January 8, 2018, a teacher and a 19-year-old student were arrested by members of Jordan’s General Intelligence Directorate (GID), and subsequently detained incommunicado, tortured, and coerced into confessing to “supporting terrorism”.

In November 2018, Jordan’s human rights record will be reviewed before the UN Human Rights Council during the country’s third Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR process sets out “to prompt, support, and expand the promotion and protection of human rights on the ground” by assessing the human rights situation in each of the UN Member States every four and a half years.