This week, as part of the EU Support to Jordanian Democratic Institutions and Development Project (EU-JDID), NIMD facilitated a consultative meeting on Jordan’s National Action Plan for Human Rights (NAP). The meeting was held in cooperation with the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs (MoPPA) and the Governmental Coordinator for Human Rights, with the participation of representatives of civil society organizations, political parties and party coalitions.

The meeting is the third in a series of meetings aiming to engage the political parties and civil society organizations in dialogues to discuss national matters. It mainly aimed to discuss the NAP and produce recommendations on what activities and programmes could be implemented within the strategic plans of the civil society organizations and political parties. The NAP follows the government’s commitment to promote human rights, equality and political participation as a means of maintaining the country’s stability and sustainable development.

By taking an inclusive and dialogue-led approach, the recommendations from the meeting can hope to enjoy a broad base of political support across Jordan. With different civil society actors represented alongside so many political parties, a more effective and transparent NAP can be developed. UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG16), namely promoting ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’, relies on peaceful cooperation and equal access to human rights; this makes inclusive dialogue such as this an integral part of any nation’s wider development.

The participants highlighted the need to organize specialized focus groups to work on the main pillars included in the NAP, in order to produce specified recommendations. The meeting was held under the patronage of the Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs, Minister Musa Maaytah.

This project is funded by the European Union.

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