‘Change Forum’ discusses human rights priorities 

AMMAN — At a human rights forum held at the Dead Sea on Tuesday, participants discussed human rights in Jordan and reviewed regional experiences presented by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

The Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) organised the forum, titled “Change Forum”, in partnership with the Spanish Agency and with the support of the EU. 

The forum, held over the course of two days, was attended by the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs’ Secretary General Ali Khawaldeh, representatives of the Permanent Human Rights Committee and representatives of other national and civil institutions including the National Centre for Human Rights, the Jordanian National Commission for Women, the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the National Council for Family Affairs, according to a statement from the CDFJ. 

The groups discussed human rights priorities related to civil and political rights, social and economic rights, women's rights, and the rights of groups in need of protection: People  with disabilities, children, refugees and migrant workers. 

The participants stressed the need to continue dialogue on human rights issues and develop a set of human rights based on the National Human Rights Plan, in line with the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) approved by Jordan.

The participants agreed on the importance of preparing national reports in a transparent fashion and to integrate the views of national and civil institutions, so they more broadly reflect the views of society. 

National and civil institutions expressed their readiness to provide their expertise in the national report preparation. The institutions called on the government to prepare a clear agenda in submitting reports to contractual and non-contractual bodies. 

The participants urged the National Centre for Human Rights, in accordance with its law and objectives, to launch a platform for dialogue to engage with and address human rights issues. This platform would help generate societal consensus on rights and freedoms and provide institutions with mechanisms to monitor human rights attitudes and trends, they said.

At the end of the forum, the participants stressed the adoption of the following principles to improve Jordan’s human rights  environment: 

— Establish a national mechanism to follow up on human rights and establish a national system for human rights institutions.

— Urge the government to issue a document related to human rights priorities for the next three years in accordance with the Comprehensive National Plan for Human Rights and the recommendations of the UPR.

— Create an updated and widely available database with human rights information in Jordan, to serve as a reference for all parties under the lead of the Prime Ministry. The government should cooperate with national institutions and civil organisations to design this database.

— Adopt a public roadmap for the preparation of contractual and non-contractual national reports.

— Invite the National Centre for Human Rights to develop and institutionalise the dialogue forum, so it can become a platform for discussing human rights issues.

The participants reiterated their keenness to achieve progress in the field of human rights.