Jordan Times
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Women judges share concerns with Queen
AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania on Tuesday
reiterated the importance of increasing women’s participation in the workforce
and nurturing their role in all sectors.
During a meeting with 32 women judges yesterday, Queen Rania cited the 2005 Arab
Human Development Report, “Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World,” noting
that Jordan is currently in line with the recommendations.
The report asserts the need to increase women’s participation in the workforce
by creating a more conducive work environment, especially in the fields of
justice and the rule of law.
“We have just started our journey… Although the legal framework does exist, with
time, we will be able to create such an environment by highlighting examples and
success stories of women like you,” she told the judges.
Women judges in the Kingdom, who first started joining the judiciary in the late
1990s, mainly tackle cases related to information technology, mediation, family
issues and juvenile justice.
Since then, the participation of women in this field has increased steadily. Her
Majesty noted how proud she was to witness this phenomenon and expressed her
hope that women’s participation would continue to grow.
The judges briefed the Queen on the challenges they faced and how they overcame
them and also discussed the emergence of specialties such as intellectual
property rights, trademark laws and dealing with monopolies and unfair practices
in the Kingdom.
They discussed ways in which women can help increase awareness on these
specialties amongst university students to create interest in studying these
subjects.
In addition, the judges spoke with the Queen about their role in protecting
children, especially juvenile delinquents, and explored the benefits of
rehabilitation, as opposed to incarceration, for young offenders.
Minister of Justice Sharif Zu’bi, who was present at the meeting, announced two
initiatives designed to increase women’s participation in the field of law.
The first, a fund, set up with JD100,000 seed money, will facilitate training
courses, provide grants and create a more conducive working environment for
women.
The second will create a scholarship for women studying at the Judicial
Institute, which provides training programmes for new and serving judges from
Jordan and the region.