Civil society organizations have called for the need to intensify efforts to create tools to measure the implementation of UPR recommendations, especially those from the fourth and final UPR cycle.
During a national consultation session held by the Phenix Center for Economic and Information Studies and the Coordination Committee for Civil Society Organization (HIMAM) in cooperation with the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), the organizations revealed their intention to launch a platform to measure indicators of the implementation of the review's recommendations in its four cycles.
Ahmad Awad, director of the Phenix Center, said that the national consultations held by civil society organizations on the UPR will be submitted to the Government Coordination Office for Human Rights and stressed the importance of strengthening the partnership between civil society and the government in implementing the recommendations of the review.
The government recently accepted 8 new UPR recommendations, which were added to the register of accepted recommendations, bringing the total number of accepted recommendations to 204 out of a total of 279 recommendations that Jordan received in the review.
Director of the Justice Center for Legal Aid, Hadeel Abdel Aziz, said that the UPR mechanism carries many strengths, the most important of which is what it reveals about the political orientations of the state when accepting certain recommendations or taking note of others, noting that the acceptance of some recommendations, especially the accurate ones, means a step on the "path" and does not necessarily mean immediate change.
Abdulaziz pointed to the government's recent acceptance of a recommendation to review the new cybercrime law, noting that it came later than the review and the royal directives that recommended reviewing the law, and its acceptance was an important step.
As for the newly accepted recommendations, especially the facilitation of the work of associations and civil society, Abdel Aziz said that there is progress in this area in terms of easing pressures on associations regarding procedural and funding issues, stressing at the same time that it should be associated with an ongoing exercise of a right and not related to a specific executive official or a specific minister.
"The recommendation on associations, non-governmental organizations, and foreign funding has eased the exaggeration of the funding issue," she said.
For his part, Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies Director Assem Rababaah revealed that work is underway to establish a platform to monitor the implementation of human rights recommendations, noting that there is still a lack of institutionalization of a national mechanism that brings together the government and civil society to monitor the implementation of recommendations.
Rababaah explained that the platform being worked on will be based on linking the recommendations with procedural steps and proposed steps, and stressed the readiness of civil society organizations to contribute to the implementation of these recommendations with the government within the limits of their competencies and capabilities.
He said that there are many repeated and detailed recommendations that Jordan has not yet accepted, such as ratifying the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty. He also noted that the Kingdom has made three amendments to Article 208 of the Penal Code related to torture that do not conform to the Convention against Torture, which Jordan has ratified.
Rababa'ah emphasized the need to "monitor progress" in the UPR process and link it to specific practical steps and proposals, noting that Jordan will discuss its periodic report before the UN Committee against Torture in November next year.
Taghreed al-Dughmi, director of the Waee (Human Rights Training Center), said that the review shows the extent to which countries respect human rights and is an opportunity to exchange experiences and seek technical and financial support within the framework of the recommendations received from each country in partnership with civil society, rather than the review being a diplomatic tool.
Dughmi called for the recognition and cooperation of civil society and the government to develop a "strong implementation plan for the review's recommendations" and to network with the legislative branch.
According to Awad, despite agreeing to many of the recommendations that called for the promotion of economic and social rights, Jordan is taking the opposite path through its policies, citing the amendments to the Labor Law and the recently issued Human Resources Law for Public Sector Workers as two examples.
"Jordan's commitments to international agreements and their mechanisms are more important than economic requirements imposed by the International Monetary Fund," Awad said.
Awad called for a concerted effort by civil society to follow up on the implementation of the UPR recommendations through follow-ups of a daily rather than seasonal nature, adding that it is necessary for the government to reach the conviction that civil society is a partner and not a competitor.