Train-of- Trainers on
Monitoring Human Rights Conventions concluded successfully
The Minister of Political Development H.E. Dr. Kamal Naser and the Head of the European Commission Delegation to Jordan Ambassador Patrick Renauld attended a closing ceremony of a training course about the preparation of Shadow Reports on Human Rights Issues, organized by the Arab Women Organisation (AWO) on Sunday 8 June, 2008. They delivered related certificates to around thirty participants belonging to 4 active and prominent civil society organizations in Jordan, after an intensified 4-day training course in monitoring Human Rights Conventions.
The training course, the first of its kind, falls within the scope of preparing for the first Jordanian appointment at the Universal Periodic Report (UPR) in September 2008 at the UN in Geneva (Switzerland). As per usual UN standard practice, Jordanian NGOs are to submit their Shadow report contributions by December 2008, which will be discussed as complementary to the government's report, in view of the Jordanian government's hearing in Geneva on April 2009.
This training is part of the EU supported project conducted by the AWO. The aim is to strengthen NGOs linkages and their preparation to address the Specialised UN Committees. With this project the AWO builds on previous projects' results (some also funded by the EU). Of note, the AWO proactively promoted the CEDAW also prior to its final ratification- of last summer 2007- based on the progressive establishment of a large network of local NGOs about 100 throughout Jordan, developing also their awareness and capacity on gender issues, policies and laws.
In their welcoming words, Ms. Randa Qousous of the Arab Women Organization and Mr. Hani Addahleh of the Arab Human Rights Organization highlighted the importance of the participation of the civil society in this revision process to push forward the democratization process and the respect for human rights. They emphasized that the training of human right advocates paves the way for an effective participation in the review process. H.E. Dr. Naser expressed support to Jordanian Civil Society and expected to see well-balanced and carefully woven shadow reports.
Ambassador Renauld said "in Europe, we consider NGOs' reports as complementary to the Gov.'s reports, and the training you concluded today will allow you to work for the common and overall benefit of Jordan".
