Jordan Times
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Gov’t to examine UN rights report
By Linda Hindi
AMMAN — The government on Tuesday said it was going to examine a report by a UN
human rights investigator on torture in Jordan.
“The government will study the new report and respond accordingly,” Foreign
Ministry Spokesperson Sabah Rafie told The Jordan Times.
In a 38-page report, UN special rapporteur for torture Manfred Nowak urged the
government to investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture and
illtreatment and also make changes to domestic laws including the Constitution,
Reuters reported.
“The practice of torture is widespread in Jordan, and in some places routine...”
Nowak was quoted as saying.
He spoke about the Jafr prison, which was ordered closed and transformed into a
vocational training centre by King Abdullah in December. The King also directed
authorities to accelerate their plans to improve the infrastructure of
correctional and rehabilitation centres.
The UN investigator visited Jordan last year on an invitation by the government
and called for criminalising torture, but insisted then that the government “was
not systematically practising, authorising or condoning torture”.
His invitation was “a statement of the government’s willingness to open up an
independent and objective scrutiny and a testament to its leadership and
cooperation with the international community in the area of human rights,” he
told a press conference in June.
Rafie said his 2006 statements on torture were about “isolated cases that he
generalised”.
“The Foreign Ministry believes that not all his information was accurate,” she
said, adding that the government relayed comments in a letter to Nowak in
September, but did not receive a reply.
“Jordan was the only country that gave Nowak free access to all [rehabilitation
and correctional] facilities and institutions,” Rafie said.
Last year, the government said the UN rapporteur met with a cross-section of
officials and heads of departments that facilitated his visits to the different
rehabilitation centres — “which was a positive sign and showed transparency”.
The government said then it would wait for the rapporteur’s detailed report and
would “carefully examine and seriously look into every allegation made and will
respond to the report in due time”.
Jordan ratified and signed more than sixteen international agreements, treaties
and declarations on human rights.
Nowak’s report, based on interviews with more than 40 detainees and senior
officials in Jordan, is to be examined by the UN Human Rights Council. The
47-member state forum opens its next four-week session in Geneva on March 12,
according to Reuters.