Arab Women's Organization's Petition

Including the word ‘gender’ in the amendments to article six of the Jordanian Constitution

To Read Petition in Arabic, Please click here

Attached and here below you will find the petition by the Arab Women's Organization to include the word gender in the amendments to article six of the Jordanian Constitution.

We encourage you to sign the petition and send it to the Prime Ministry at the following address: (info@pm.gov.jo)

We, representing women in Jordan, would like to share with you the recent steps to ensure gender equality and further end all forms of discrimination against women. After the Arab Spring, there had been a tacit agreement that the Jordanian Constitution shall be reviewed and if necessary amended to bring forth more democratic changes to the country.

This opened an opportunity for women to lobby for adding the word "gender" to Article 6 of the Constitution as a fundamental and necessary step that would ensure gender equality. Article 6 stipulates that: "there shall be no discrimination between Jordanians as regards to their rights and duties on grounds of race, language or religion". Including the word “gender" establishes the fact that the Jordanian Constitution will prohibit any and all forms of discrimination against women and that all parties concerned must ensure justice and equality for Jordanian women.

Many countries, including 20 Arab countries, like Morocco, Tunisia, Qatar, Oman, as well as many Moslem countries, like Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia have clearly stipulated that the principle of non-discrimination also includes the grounds of "gender".

Mid way through the process of the inclusion of word "gender" to Article 6, we were disappointed because the Royal Committee on Constitutional Review did not keep its promise. . Right now, women activists have moved to lobby the Parliament (Deputies and Senators) to revisit the draft amendments and find a way to include "gender" or provide a clear statement on equality between men and women.

We feel that this is a precious opportunity for the State to honour its obligations made especially by its ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Concluding Observations adopted by the CEDAW Committee after the review of 3^rd and 4^th state report of Jordan at the 39^th session clearly stipulates the obligation of the State and encourages the State to institute a constitutional amendment to incorporate equality on the basis of sex in article 6 of the Constitution, and to undertake a review of all existing legislation to bring it fully into compliance with the Convention (para 171).

Including the word ‘gender’ in the amendments to the Constitution will ensure that all laws and policies are non-discriminatory on the basis of gender in any situation or context. This will also create the opportunity for a broader interpretation that would include the principles of substantive equality as all laws and policies will need to be CEDAW compliant. Our government has to understand its obligations under treaty law and be held accountable towards advancing the realisation of women’s human rights.

Signing the following "petition" as an expression of international solidarity, would be a great support for Jordanian women. Do join your voices to our struggle.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Arab Women’s Organisation (AWO)

The petition:

We, the undersigned, call on the Jordanian government to honour all its obligations made both at the domestic and international levels for the protection and promotion of women’s human rights.

We are of the opinion that the inclusion of  ‘gender’ to Article 6 of the Constitution is the first step towards ensuring that the principles of non-discrimination and substantive equality  will be upheld by the Constitution of the country.