Wednesday, Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh received the 16th annual report of the National Center of Human Rights, which monitors human rights in the Kingdom for 2019, from the Chairman of the Center’s Board of Trustees Arheel Al-Gharaibeh.

Khasawneh affirmed the government’s commitment to the royal directives to strengthen and consolidate human rights and freedoms in the Kingdom, with plans to build on the achievements made by Jordan in this regard.

The PM also affirmed that the government is looking into this report with great interest, pointing out that the government is keen to amend any procedures or legislation which would enhance the human rights situation in Jordan.

Additionally, he directed ministries and other governmental institutions to strengthen their cooperation with the National Center of Human Rights, and to speed up their responses in dealing with recommendations and observations included in the report, in accordance with the provisions of the law.

The findings of the report stipulated that two laws are of grave concern to the human rights of citizens of the Kingdom, one of which has allowed for the sharp increase in the number of administrative detainees held in Jordan.

The first law, which is the Crime Prevention Law No. 7 of 1954, allows law enforcement to arrest anyone who they consider to be a danger to society, without an indictment, legal guarantees, and any issuance of a judicial order.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the government’s widespread use of the Crime Prevention Law to justify administrative detention fundamentally undermines the rule of law in Jordan.

The second law, which is the Cybercrime Law No. 27 of 2015, replaced the the Law of Information System Crimes.

Within this law, the term 'hate speech was defined as “[e]very writing and every speech or action intended to provoke sectarian or racial sedition, advocate for violence or foster conflict between followers of different religions and various components of the nation.”

The center recommended to amend this law in order to bring it into line with international human rights standards, as Jordan has been a member of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) since 1975, and is therefore bound by its human rights standards. The current legislation along with the previous versions do not meet the standards of freedom of expression stipulated by ICCPR.

As a result of this broad and imprecise definition, the amendments risk criminalizing a wide range of acts falling under the right to freedom of expression that is protected under international human rights law.

It is feared that a lack of clarity of the definition could suppress a wide range of expression, including criticism of the government, news reporting, political campaigning and the expression of unpopular, controversial or minority opinions, which hands a vast discretionary power to authorities.