Senior Human Rights Advisor to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Associations Forum

Speech by Christina Meinecke, Senior Human Rights Advisor to the  UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Associations Forum

Ms. Abeer Mdanat,

Dear HIMAM colleagues,

Mr. Clément VOULE: United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association,

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and gentleman,

I would like express my sincere appreciation for this invitation.

In September 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General, launched a Common Agenda. In the words of the Secretary-General “The choices we make — or fail to make — today, could result in further breakdown and a future of perpetual crises, or a breakthrough to a better, more sustainable, peaceful future for our people and planet”.  The Common Agenda is an agenda of action to make a tangible difference in people’s lives.

It is our agenda that calls on us all to Leave No One Behind. To protect our planet. To place women and girls at the centre. To listen to and work with youth. To build a new social contract anchored in human rights.

A new social contract anchored in human rights requires increasing civic space. Civic space is the environment that enables people and groups to participate meaningfully in the political, economic, social and cultural life of their societies. An open, safe, diverse and inclusive participation in decisions affecting peoples’ lives is a universal desire. Meaningful participation makes decisions more informed, representative and sustainable, be it in development, peace and security, human rights or humanitarian sphere. 

And the United Nations has developed a number of guidance tools to achieve meaningful participation by “civic space actors”. The Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights, and the UN Guidance Note on the Protection and Promotion of Civic Space provide examples. The “Guidelines on the effective implementation on the right to participate in public affairs” adopted by States, provide recommendations for States on to facilitate participation in electoral processes, but also in non-electoral contexts and at the international level.

International law defines the boundaries within which States shape civic space through laws, policies and practices. International human rights law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) protects the right to participate in public affairs, the right to freedom of opinions and expression, and the right to freedom of assembly and association, among other fundamental human rights relevant to civic space. 

Jordan has ratified the ICCPR in 1975 and is party to six other core international human rights treaties. Jordan has also ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), but it has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) of the International Labour Organisation.

A few days ago, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) through its spokesperson noted that it is  “concerned by the continued detention in Jordan of peaceful activists arrested in February and March under the Law of Crime Prevention and the Cybercrime Prevention Law…. Reportedly, some of those detained were arrested merely for planning protests, others for protesting over local election results.. ».  Also, civil society organizations sometimes face difficulties in relation to registration and accessing funding for their work. Bureaucratic impediments could be a hinderance and restrict civic space.

The 2021 Ministerial Declaration made at the High-Level Political Forum in New York, which is regularly reviewing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, called for widening civic space.  States committed to enhance work to develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels and ensure more responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making processes;  to encourage the empowerment of women and their full, equal and meaningful participation in the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of national sustainable development strategies; and to involve and empower local authorities to ensure local ownership of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular by citizens, community and local organizations, and to shape and translate national development priorities into local realities.

In Jordan, this commitment, was translated, among others, in the 5th National Action Plan 2021-2025 under the Open Government Partnership, through submitting the Voluntary National Review 2022 with multi-stakeholder participation and through preparing the Amman Voluntary Local Review to show progress and foster exchange in local implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

During the 2018 Universal Periodic Review process, the Government of Jordan supported a number of recommendations and will report on their implementation by mid-2023, which included: to ensure a safe and enabling environment for journalists and media workers, and ensure freedom of the media and a space for civil society free from interference, threats and intimidation (UPR 135.72), to continue the practice of consulting with civil society on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UPR 135.46), and to review its legislation and practices with the aim of ensuring that all persons and civil society actors, including human rights defenders and journalists, can freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, both online and offline (UPR 136.17).

The United Nations in Jordan stands ready to support these implementation efforts.

We are currently developing with the Government of Jordan our new Cooperation Framework 2023-27. Drawing on different stakeholder consultations last year, we intend in the next five years to support the Government to accelerate efforts on actual implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This includes our support to Jordanian institutions, and partners and a commitment by the UN in Jordan itself, to increase accessibility, accountability and transparency for decisions made and results achieved. The UN will contribute to reducing the legislative, structural and operational barriers to inclusive representation in elected bodies and leadership positions and to enhancing the capacity of all people in Jordan to claim their rights and to engage in non-electoral decision-making processes that affect them.

I wish us all a fruitful day to formulate relevant recommendations to advance together in this direction.