JORDANIAN POLICE UNIT BOOSTS PRESENCE OF UN-AFRICAN UNION FORCE IN DARFUR

An advance party of Jordanian police officers arrived in Darfur today ahead of a larger deployment due later this month to strengthen the efforts of the joint United Nations-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in the strife-torn Sudanese region.

The 46 members of the Jordanian formed police unit (FPU) will be responsible for setting up equipment and accommodation in preparation for the remaining 280 personnel scheduled to arrive on 28 August.

The entire unit will be divided into two and deployed to El Fasher and Kabkabiya in North Darfur state.

FPUs are comprised of police officers who have received specialized training in high-risk operations. Their main task is the protection of civilians, including through conducting community policing, especially in camps housing internally displaced persons (IDPs).

They also assist UN agencies in the delivery of humanitarian aid in Darfur, where some 2.7 million people have been displaced from their homes over the course of six years of conflict pitting Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen against rebel groups.

UNAMID expects to have 19 FPUs once it reaches full strength. Jordan is the fifth country to contribute a unit, following Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and Nigeria. The force is expecting the arrival of a Senegalese FPU later this month.

Established by the Security Council in 2007, the mission is expected to have a total of 26,000 military and police personnel at full deployment.
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NEW UN PARTNERSHIP SEEKS TO BOOST INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN ARAB REGION

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has teamed up with a Jordanian-based business services company to promote information and communication technology (ICT) to support education, science and culture in the Arab region.

The agreement signed today in Paris between UNESCO and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) seeks to increase access to and measure the use of ICT in different sectors of society, enhance teacher training, and promote multilingualism and internationalized Internet Domain Names.

"UNESCO relies upon and welcomes partners such as TAG-Org to realize the vision of knowledge societies," stated Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO.

The agency and TAG-Org are planning to create a knowledge society portal on which data in Arabic and English on the state of Arab countries on ICT in education, science, culture, communication and commerce – collected through digital surveys, digital reporting, and digital resources – will be made available.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Founder and Chairman of TAG-Org, said availability of such data will assist local governments, institutions, and international organizations to understand gaps in ICT and to take a leading role in developing ICT infrastructure and building ICT capacity.

Under the new agreement, UNESCO and TAG-Org will develop an immediate action plan for that project, prepare a strategy to enhance multilingualism and Internet Domain Names in the Arabic script, and work together to increase the availability of Arabic content on the Internet, among other things.
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PRINCESS HAYA OF JORDAN CALLS ON DONORS TO SUPPORT UN RELIEF EFFORTS IN PAKISTAN

Characterizing the ongoing crisis in north-west Pakistan as the largest humanitarian emergency in the world today, United Nations Messenger of Peace Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan has called for a massive international response to aid the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people forced to live in makeshift shelters.

In a televised message across the Middle East and elsewhere, Princess Haya urged the public to step up donations to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) operations, which provide support for over 2 million Pakistanis who have escaped the conflict between Government forces and militants in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"Millions have been forced to leave, abandoning their homes, their communities and their loved ones," said Princess Haya. "They arrive needing everything: shelter, food, and medical care."

UNHCR said it is seeking to ease congestion by expanding camps, where the agency says around 10 per cent of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) have fled, and ramp up assistance to people taken in by families in local communities.

High Commissioner António Guterres has said that hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed for the overall relief effort as a shortage of resources is already reducing the amount of shelter and other aid items reaching IDPs, the agency said in a press release.

"Only with your help, can UNHCR revive hope, assist with shelter and meet other basic needs. Please help UNHCR," said Princess Haya.

The UN and its partners launched an appeal for $543 million on 22 May, of which just over one-quarter has been funded, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said two weeks ago.
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Jordan: Replace Law on Associations

Proposed Amendments Not Sufficient to Meet Rights Obligations

May 16, 2009

(Amman) - Jordan should scrap its proposed amendments to a law regulating nongovernmental organizations and instead propose a new law that would guarantee freedom of association, Human Rights Watch and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network said today in a letter to Prime Minister Nader al-Dahabi. The proposed amendments to the 2008 Law of Societies do not rectify major deficiencies that violate the right to free association.

"It makes no sense to keep trying to cobble together amendments to a law that takes the wrong approach to begin with," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "It is time to start over with a new law guided by Jordan's obligations under international law."

In their letter to al-Dahabi, Human Rights Watch and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network called on the government to revisit aspects of the 2008 law limiting the activities and membership of nongovernmental organizations and their ability to function independently from the government.

In 2006, a coalition of Jordanian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) proposed a draft law, but the government rejected it, instead submitting an alternative draft law to parliament that was even more restrictive than the old Law of Charitable
Societies of 1966. Parliament approved the government's draft with minor changes in 2008, and King Abdullah signed it into law in December 2008.

An outcry by local and international NGOs prompted al-Dahabi's government to offer a new round of consultations with NGOs under the aegis of the social development minister, Hala Latouf. But the resulting amendments proposed by the government fell short of NGO expectations. The parliamentary session expected for June is to vote on these government amendments.

The current law prohibits associations from pursuing any "political objectives" and activities that violate "public order." Both terms are overly broad and invite governmental abuse. The law also discriminates against non-Muslim religious organizations, by restricting the activities they are allowed to engage in, and excludes non-Jordanians and children from establishing associations in
Jordan, in violation of the country's international treaty obligations.

The 2009 proposed amendments would ease the process of establishing an association by describing more clearly the duties of the registrar of associations, but they continue to grant the government ultimate political control to decide whether an association can incorporate. The inclusion of a right to challenge such denials judicially provides inadequate redress, since the law includes no criteria for denying permission and the government could act lawfully by denying permission without reason.

The 2009 proposed amendments do not address the 2008 law's disproportionate government control over the work of NGOs, requiring them to submit annual plans to the government in advance, to admit government officials to meetings, and to
seek prior approval for any foreign funding. The 2008 law also allows the government to remove an NGO's management and replace it with state functionaries and to dissolve the NGO for repeating minor infractions of the law. The new amendments would actually increase governmental control, allowing it access to an NGO's finances at any time without cause or a judicial warrant.
These measures make it difficult for associations to operate independently of government, the defining feature of nongovernmental organizations.

International law guarantees the right to form associations, and any restrictions placed on that right in a democratic society must be necessary for national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others, and be the least restrictive possible. The Jordanian government has not made clear how the severe restrictions fulfill any of these conditions.

"The government's attempts to exert excessive control over NGOs deprives Jordanians of the benefits of open discussion about public policies and services," said Whitson.

UNICEF CHIEF HIGHLIGHTS JORDAN’S EFFORTS TO TACKLE VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS

UNICEF CHIEF HIGHLIGHTS JORDAN'S EFFORTS TO TACKLE VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS
New York, Mar 4 2009 1:00PM

The head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has highlighted Jordan's efforts to tackle violence against children in schools, a problem affecting over half of the country's young people.

"A recent study shows that more than one half of children in Jordan experience physical violence in school, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman noted during her two-day visit to the country, which wrapped up yesterday.

"Violence against children in schools is unacceptable and should not be tolerated," she added.

UNICEF is partnering with the Ministry of Education and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to tackle the issue of violence in schools through the Ma'an (Together) initiative.

The Family Protection department within the police is also responding to the problem of violence against children with a programme of early detection in public hospitals, a telephone help-line and a referral system through the Ministry of Social Development.

In addition, a wide-scale better parenting campaign is being conducted nationwide through the use of imams in mosques that targets mainly fathers and teaches them the principles of child care, respect, protection, and non-discrimination between girls and boys.

"The use of religious leaders and their moral authority in teaching principles of child rights to parents and families is an efficient way to reach out to the wider community. It is a powerful advocacy channel," said Ms. Veneman.

Since the programme began in 2000, UNICEF has trained 600 imams in skills to train parents on proper child-rearing practices. Over 130,000 families have been trained on parenting skills.

During her trip, the first stop on a mission that will also take her to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, Ms. Veneman visited several schools, including one that takes part in the Madrasati (My School) initiative, which brings together the public and private sectors, as well as parents and the community in a collective effort to improve public school facilities and the standard of education throughout the country.

She also visited schools that have integrated Iraqi children currently in Jordan. According to the Ministry of Education, there are 26,800 Iraqi children in school across Jordan, which has hosted Palestinian refugees since 1948.

Ms. Veneman also met with Jordan's Queen Rania Al Abdullah, who is UNICEF's Eminent Advocate for Children, and a number of other officials.
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