Articles for Jordan

UPDATE: Ghassan Duar was released on July 29, 2018 after the completion of his sentence.

On 31 March 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on arbitrary detention (WGAD) concerning the case of Ghassan Mohammed Salim Duar, arbitrarily detained since 29 October 2014 because of his support to the Palestinian cause.

On 22 January 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association regarding the arrest and incommunicado detention of Bassem Al Rawabedah and Thabet Assaf.

Amer Jamil Jubran is a human rights defender focusing mostly on Palestine. He is arbitrarily detained since May 2014, by the Jordanian authorities. It is not the first time that his political activism leads him to be questioned by the Intelligence services.

Alkarama expresses its concern over the new anti-terrorism law that was adopted by the Jordanian government on 1st June 2014. The amendments to the initial law n°55 of 2006 are not in line with international Human Rights standards and treaties ratified by the Hashemite Kingdom.

Jordan missed the opportunity to demonstrate political will to promote and protect human rights at the adoption of the report of its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the UN Human Rights Council today. We recall that due to the Jordanian authorities' failure to implement many of the recommendations it accepted during its first review in 2009, a number of recommendations were repeated. And the authorities failed to accept any additional recommendations today.

Next Wednesday, 20 November, will mark the second session of the trial of three Jordanian activists before the State Security Court (SSC), notorious for its disrespect of fair trial norms. The three activists named Hamam Mohamed Qafisheh, Ayman Abdelaziz Al Bahrawy, and Diaa Al Din Abdelaziz Al Shalaby were arrested on suspicion of producing and distributing posters displaying the R4BIA signs, associated with the Muslim Brotherhood protests in neighboring Egypt.

Today, the report on the second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the human rights situation in Jordan was adopted by the UPR Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council. In view of the Jordanian authorities' failure to fully implement many of the recommendations made during its first review in 2009, a number of recommendations were repeated. Many of these recommendations again enjoyed the support of Jordan, but some crucial suggestions were unfortunately refused.