• Human Rights In Jordan

    From King Abdullah on down, Jordanian officials pride themselves on a better rights record than their neighbors, but the kingdom has barely advanced rights protections over the past decade. Expression and association remain tightly circumscribed in law and practice, and security services enjoy a large degree of impunity for arbitrary arrests and torture, as do employers for widespread abuses against migrant domestic workers. Fighting corruption became a major popular demand in 2011, but court cases smacked of politicization.

  • © 2011 Human Rights Watch
    Jordan: End Protester Trials in State Security Courts
    Jordanian authorities should stop using state security courts to try civilians, including for participating in peaceful protests. Protests have intensified following an announcement by the government on November 14, 2012, that it would end fuel subsidies.
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Reports

  • Domestic Plight
    How Jordanian Laws, Officials, Employers, and Recruiters Fail Abused Migrant Domestic Workers
  • Slow Reform
    Protection of Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia and the Middle East
  • Stateless Again
    Palestinian-Origin Jordanians Deprived of their Nationality
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Jordan

  • Jordan: End Protester Trials in State Security Courts
    Nov 30, 2012
    Jordanian authorities should stop using state security courts to try civilians, including for participating in peaceful protests. Protests have intensified following an announcement by the government on November 14, 2012, that it would end fuel subsidies.
  • Iraq/Turkey: Open Borders to All Syrian Refugees
    Oct 14, 2012
    The Iraqi and Turkish authorities should immediately re-open border crossings where more than 10,000 Syrians have been stranded for weeks and allow all those wishing to seek asylum to cross without delay.
  • Jordan: Arrest Wave Signals Growing Intolerance for Dissent
    Sep 13, 2012
    The arrest by security forces of well over a dozen peaceful reform activists since September 7, 2012, signals the government’s toughening stand toward demands for political reform in the kingdom. The authorities should release all of those detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to expression, association, and assembly.
  • Jordan: A Move to Censor Online Expression
    Sep 10, 2012
    A proposed law requiring electronic publications to obtain a license and granting executive authorities the power to close down unlicensed sites threatens freedom of expression online. The government on August 22, 2012, sent the draft amendments to the Press and Publications law to parliament for approval.
  • Syria Neighbors: Keep Borders Open for Refugees
    Aug 29, 2012
    Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon have mostly opened their borders to more than 200,000 refugees from neighboring Syria, but in the past week some officials in these countries have said they are reaching their limit and may soon close their borders.
  • Jordan: Government Clamps Down on Civil Society
    Jul 31, 2012
    Jordan’s government is violating the right to freedom of association by denying, without explanation, a civil society organization permission to accept foreign funding.
  • Letter to Jordanian Prime Minister al-Tarawneh Regarding NGO Funding
    Jul 19, 2012
    Human Rights Watch is writing to express our deep concerns regarding the cabinet’s recent rejection of foreign funding to a Jordanian nongovernmental organization (NGO).
  • Jordan: Bias at the Syrian Border
    Jul 4, 2012
    The Jordanian authorities have forcibly returned some newly arriving Palestinians from Syria and threatened others with deportation, Human Rights Watch said today. Since April 2012, the authorities have also arbitrarily detained Palestinians fleeing Syria in a refugee holding center without any options for release other than return to Syria.
  • Syria: End Indiscriminate Shootings of Civilians Fleeing Country
    Jun 27, 2012
    Syrian soldiers on the border with Jordan appear to be shooting indiscriminately at anyone - including civilian women and children - trying to flee from Syria.
  • EBRD: Use Expansion to Promote Rights
    May 18, 2012
    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should articulate concrete human rights benchmarks for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia as it expands its operations into the Middle East and North Africa.
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