Memorandum / Open letter | EU-Jordan Association Council on Octobre 11th 2004

07/10/2004
Press release

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights
Network (EMHRN) address this letter to you in view of the second EU-Jordan Association Council on
11 October 2004. We would like to express our concerns regarding the human rights situation in
Jordan.

Recommendations

In the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Neighbourhood Policy, the FIDH and
the EMHRN call on the European Union to urge the Jordanian authorities to:

 Declare a moratorium on executions and further abolish death penalty;
 Reform the penal code in order to criminalize “honour crimes”;
 Ensure women’s rights, in particular those related to freedom of movement, inheritance, child
custody, social benefits;
 Ensure the right to a fair trial by promoting independent tribunals and abolishing jurisdictions of
exception such as State Security courts before which the basic international standards for a fair trial
are not guaranteed.

The FIDH and the EMHRN call on the European Union and Jordan to:

 Integrate a strong chapter on human rights with clearly measurable objectives and benchmarks in the
action plan to be adopted very soon in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Civil
society should be actively consulted and involved in the implementation of the action plan (we very
much regret that there was no consultation at the drafting stage). Regular evaluation of the
progresses should be undertaken and the action plan subsequently adapted.
 Decide to create at the association council’s meeting, a committee on human rights in the framework
of the Association Agreement and to guarantee that civil society will be regularly consulted on the
work of any such future committee.
The FIDH and EMHRN urge the EU to:
 Fully implement the 10 recommendations of the EU Communication on reinvigorating EU actions
on human rights and democracy with Mediterranean partners;
 urgently allocate the necessary financial and human resources for the implementation of the Wider
Europe action plans and the Communication on human rights in the Mediterranean region. Both
organisations welcome the adoption of EU programmes on human rights and democratisation in
Jordan for 2005-06; however these are not enough to implement the 2 communications. Furthermore
we hope that NGOs working on human rights, women’s rights and refugee/migrants rights will have
an easy access to these programmes.

We also ask for systematic mainstreaming of human rights and
women’s rights into all MEDA programmes with a clear methodology.

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