Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination

against Women

Fifty- first session

13 February-2 March 2012

List of issues and questions with regard to the consideration of periodic reports

Jordan

The pre-session working group examined the fifth periodic report of Jordan (CEDAW/C/JOR/5).

General

1.Please provide information on the process of preparing the fifth periodic report. In particular, please indicate whether non-governmental organizations were consulted, as recommended by the Committee in its previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 42), and whether the report was submitted to parliament.

Legal status of the Convention and legislative and institutional framework

2.Please indicate any steps taken by the State party to amendthe Nationality Law to allow Jordanian women to pass on their nationality to their children and husbands and to remove discriminatory provisions from the Personal Status Act (see report, paras. 302-304, 313 and 315), based on progressive interpretations of Islamic law, with a view to withdrawing its reservations to articles 9, paragraph 2, and 16, paragraph 1 (c), (d) and (g),of the Convention (para. 5), as recommended by the Committee(CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 12) and during the universal periodic review of Jordan.The State party withdrew its reservation to article 15, paragraph 4, of the Convention. What steps have been taken to enforce the Passport Law ensuring that children may travel with their mothers without the fathers’ permission?

3.Please clarify whether the Convention is directly applicable in the State party and whether it takes precedence overall domestic legislation (see report, para. 8). Please indicate how many judges, prosecutors and lawyers received training on the Convention (para. 32) in 2009 and 2010 and provide examples of court decisions making reference to provisions of the Convention, if any. Please also indicate the measures taken by the State party to disseminate the Convention other than its mere publication in the Official Gazette (para. 34), as well as the Committee’s general recommendations.

4.Please provide information on the number of complaints submitted by women to theNational Centre for Human Rights(see report, para. 16) in 2009 and 2010, the types of alleged violations, and the outcomeof those cases.Please also provide detailed information on the measures taken to ensure the independence of the Centre, in line with the Paris Principles (General Assembly resolution 48/134 of 20 December 1993), its mandate in relation to women’s rights, and its human and financial resources.

Stereotypes

5.What practical measures have been taken by the State party to implement the Committee’s recommendation (CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 19) to eliminate traditional stereotypesregarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society and to create an enabling environment conducive to changing discriminatory laws, customs and practices and strengthening women’s ability to enjoy all their human rights? Please also indicate whether the State party encourages the media to play a proactive role in portraying positive images of women to eliminate traditional stereotypes.

Violence against women

6.Please explain why the bill amending the Penal Code makes no provision for criminalizing marital rape (see report, para. 59) and indicate whether the State party considers repealing article 308 of the Penal Code exempting rapists from punishment if they marry their victims (para. 64). Please also indicate whether the State party intends to establish a special court dealing with domestic violence (para. 27). Please clarify whether family reconciliation in domestic violence cases means that perpetrators are exempted from punishment (para. 29). Please also provide detailed information on the penalties imposed on perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence between 2008 and 2010 (para. 47).

7.Please provide further information on measures taken to ensure that women and girls who are victims of violence, including disabled women and girls, have access to effective remedies and protection. Please also provide information on victim assistance and on the number, capacity and geographic distribution of, as well as on the conditions in shelters. What measures have been taken to address cultural attitudes preventing women from reporting cases of violence (see report, para. 44)? What steps have been taken to systematically collect data on violence against women and girls in the State party?

8.Please indicate whether the State party considers repealingarticle 98 of the Penal Code to ensure that perpetrators of premeditated “honour crimes” may not benefit from a reduction of penalty (see report, para. 61). Please also provide information on the sentences imposed on perpetrators of “honour killings”between 2008 and 2010 (para. 63). What strategies are being developed to protect women and girls from “honour crimes”through measures other thanprotective custody (para. 37; see also CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 26) and to ensure the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of such crimes into society?

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution of women

9.Pleaseprovide sex-disaggregated data on the number of registered cases of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children, the number of prosecutions and the sentences imposed on traffickers under the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (2009) between 2008 and 2010. Please also provide information on the mechanisms in place for monitoring the implementation of the Act and on the measures taken to assist rather than criminalize victims of human trafficking, including those who are exploited in prostitution (see report, para. 98), such as shelters, legal and medical assistance, psychological counselling, rehabilitation services, and temporary residence permits(para. 96).

Participation in political and public life and decision-making

10.Please indicate the percentage of women in the Chamber of Representatives following the 2010 elections (see report, para. 107). Please also indicate the measurestaken, including temporary special measures in accordance with article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention, such as introducing quotas for women candidates on electoral lists of political parties andfurther increasing the number ofreserved seats in the Chamber of Representatives and in municipal councils (para. 108) in the draft Political Party Law, the draft Election Law and in the new Municipality Law, to increasewomen’s representation in elected and appointed decision-making positions (CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 28). What stepshave been taken to increase the number of women on voters’ lists and to supportwomen candidates standing for election (see report, para. 106)? What mechanisms are in place to monitor the increase in women’s representation within the executive, legislative and judicial branches and in the diplomatic service?

Education

11.Please provide information on the measures taken to further increase the enrolment of girls at the secondary level of education (see report, paras. 125 and 135), reduce the female illiteracy rate and ensure girls’ access to extracurricular activities and sports activities in schools (para. 131), especially in rural areas, and remove discriminatory gender stereotypes from school curricula and textbooks.

12.Please indicate the measures taken to incorporate entrepreneurship education into the curriculum of secondary education and to revise the technical, vocational, educational and training (TVET) strategy to promote women’s and girls’ participation in traditionally male dominated fields (see report, paras. 136-137).

Employment

13.Please provideinformation on the measures, including temporary special measures in accordance with article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention, such as accelerated recruitment of women into the civil service; ensuring women’s access to job promotion, benefits and training opportunities;enablingwomen and men to reconcile professional and family life;and awareness-raising, toincrease women’s access to employment in the public and private sectors, including in decision-making positions (see report, paras. 157 and 161-163). Please also provide information on the measures taken to reduce the gender pay gap in both the private and public sectors (para.183).

14.Please describe the measures taken to combat exploitative working conditions of women and girls employed as domestic workers, including migrants (see report, para. 169), by protecting them from violence by their employers and ensuring their freedom to change employers without having to seek permission from their original sponsors (CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 34). What steps have been taken by the Domestic Workers Directorate of the Ministry of Labour (see report, para. 101) to regulate recruitment agencies and implement the regulations on domestic workers (paras. 55 and 102)?

Health

15.Please indicate whether the State party intends amending its legislation on abortion, with a view to including other grounds for performing legal abortions, in addition to threats to the life of the mother (see report, para. 240), in particular in cases of pregnancies due to incest and rape. What steps is the State party taking to ensure that women who are victims of sexual violence have access to safe abortion services and post-abortion care? What measures have been taken to improve women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services, including access to contraceptives? Please indicate whether education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including on risky behaviour patterns and HIV/AIDS,has been integrated into the regular school curricula, especially at the secondary level (para. 211).

Women’s economic empowerment

16.Please describe the measures taken by the State party to ensure women’s equal access to land, livestock, technology and credit, including by eliminating cultural restrictions on women’s access to land ownership, awareness-raising on the inheritance rights of women, who are often pressured to waive their portions in favour of male family members, and by supporting women to establish their own small and medium enterprises by setting up informal credit systems for women and by addressing their dependence on male guarantors as well as their difficulties in providing collaterals for loans and credit.

Rural women

17.Please indicate whether the State party plans to expand the outreach of the National Aid Fund (NAF) to women heads of households in rural areas, including those who cannot provide proof of absence of a legal provider, as well as to poor single and married women who have been abandoned by their husbands or parents. What measures are in placeto ensure that rural development programmes and projects integrate a gender perspective?

Disadvantaged groups of women

18. Apart from information on the education (see report, para. 139) and health (paras. 241-247) services provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the report provides little information on the situation of refugee women and girls, including Palestinians and Iraqis. Please provide information on the measures taken by the State party to address the specific challenges faced by those women and girls, including lack of shelter and legal and medical assistance for victims of violence, and indicate whether the State party considers acceding to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

Marriage and family

19.Please clarify whether the State party considers amending the Personal Status Act by repealing the exceptionsprovided in the revised article 10 of the new temporary law,which allowsmarriage before the age of 18 yearsunder certain circumstances (see report, para. 316), in line with the Committee’s previous recommendations(CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 36)?Please specify the conditions set out in the Personal Status Act under which marriage rites continue to be non-punishable, in accordance with the draft amendment to article 279 of the Penal Code (see report, para. 57).

Optional Protocol

20.In its previous recommendations (CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/4, para. 41), the Committee recommended that the State party ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention. In this regard, please explain why the State party has not accepted this and similar recommendations addressed to it during the Universal Periodic Review (A/HRC/11/29, para. 94) and by the National Centre for Human Rights (see report, para. 6).