A woman in Jordan can be killed if she is suspected of having extramarital relations, being a rape victim, or marrying a man against her family’s wishes.

“Honor killings” – murders of women by male relatives for allegedly violating social norms and disgracing the family’s “honor” – constitute more than one-third of all homicides in Jordan. The male relatives who commit these crimes receive little or no punishment.

There was little public discussion in Jordan about this form of violence against women until a Jordanian female journalist counted and published the number of women killed in the name of “honor.” Her articles caught the attention of Isis Nusair, Human Rights Watch’s researcher for women’s rights in the Middle East. Nusair reached out to Jordanian women’s rights activists, gathered extensive information about honor crimes, and presented a strongly worded letter to the Jordanian government condemning the practice. We posted the letter on our website and distributed it in Arabic and English to major media outlets and high-ranking officials, including U.S. President Clinton before Jordanian King Abdullah’s visit to the United States.

Our letter was released at the same time as eleven Jordanian activists were forming a national campaign to abolish honor crimes. Together, we set off a firestorm of protest. Members of the campaign gathered 15,000 signatures in a petition and presented it to the Jordanian government and parliament. The campaign also organized a march attended by more than 3,000 people, including members of the Jordanian royal family.

In our public statements, Human Rights Watch stressed that these crimes were not private matters, but human rights violations. We noted that the U.N. treaty prohibiting discrimination against women, which Jordan has ratified, requires governments not to discriminate in applying criminal law to acts of violence against women. We highlighted this point to Jordanian officials and members of the royal family, who favored legislation to punish perpetrators of these murders. We shared our knowledge of human rights standards with our Jordanian partners, with whom we also exchanged research and advocacy strategies and developed policy recommendations.

Partly as a result of our letter, the Jordanian prime minister introduced a bill to amend laws that discriminate against women. Although the Jordanian Parliament ultimately chose not to adopt the amendments, our work with Jordanian activists nonetheless contributed to an important change in Jordan’s public debate on the issue. Increasingly, honor killings are no longer considered domestic or private affairs, but rather, evidence of systematic, violent discrimination against women, in violation of international law. Women’s rights groups and activists are now following closely the actions of the nation’s judiciary – in some cases by monitoring trials – so that judges have become more sensitive to abuses against women.

We know that institutional change in Jordan will not happen overnight. But the very presence of an intensified dialogue on women’s human rights in Jordan testifies to the importance of a strong national-international collaboration to advance this cause.