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Summary: General overview of Jordan's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
National laws on children's rights Status of the CRC in national law International treaties must be ratified and published in the Official Gazette in order to enter the Jordanian legal system. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has now been published and so can, in principle, be invoked before domestic courts. It is not clear, however, whether the Convention has been cited in domestic courts and, if so, to what effect. Constitution: Chapter II of the Jordanian Constitution contains a number of rights provisions that apply to children as to any other person, but only a small number that specifically address children: Art. 19: provides that Congregations shall have the right to maintain their own schools Art. 20: provides for free and compulsory elementary education for all Jordanians Art. 23: requires special conditions to be made for the employment of women and juveniles Legislation: there is no comprehensive or consolidated Children's Act in Jordanian law, rather provisions of particular relevance to children can be found in a number of Acts. Legislation of particular relevance to children includes, but is by no means limited to: The Juveniles Act (Law No. 24 of 1968, as amended) The Penal Code (Law No. 16 of 1960, as amended) The Sharia Procedure Act (Law No. 84 of 2001) The Labour Code (Law No. 8 of 1996, as amended) The Education Act (Law No. 3 of 1994) The Civil Status Act (Law No. 9 of 2001) The Personal Status Act (amended by Law No. 82 of 2001) The Jordanian Nationality Act (Law No. 7 of 1954) The Interim Juvenile Conduct Monitoring Act (Law No. 51 of 2001) The Jordanian Passport Act (amended 2003) The Residents and Foreign Nationals' Affairs Act (Law No. 24 of 1972) The Education Regulations issued in 2003 Legal Research: The World Law Guide (http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/oeur/lxwejor.htm) and the International Labour Organisation, NATLEX (http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.country?p_lang=en&p_country=JOR) provide links to a selection of legislation in English. The Constitution is available in English through the website of the King of Jordan (http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/constitution_jo.html) In addition, the U.S. Law Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/jordan.php) and the World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/jo/) provide a selection of links to relevant legal and governmental resources. Case Law CRC Jurisprudence Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Case Law Research Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any online resources that provide access to the decisions of Jordanian courts. Compliance with the CRC The Committee on the Rights of the Child last examined a report from Jordan in 2006, at which point it raised several concerns with regards to national legislation and the legal status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee noted that the Convention had not been published in the Official Gazette, and that the domestic legal framework contained a large number of inconsistencies with the Convention, particularly with regards to the minimum age of criminal responsibility, non-discrimination, the right to life, ill-treatment within the family, children with disabilities and sexual exploitation, all of which had been raised in the Committee's previous Concluding Observations. The Convention has since been published in the Official Gazette. In depth analysis Throughout the 2006 Concluding Observations of the Committee, the State's failure to incorporate the principle of non-discrimination with regards to various vulnerable groups continually arose. Specifically, the Committee expressed concern at the lesser rights of women compared to men to pass their nationality on to their children and the discriminatory classification of children born out of wedlock as “illegitimate”. The committee expressed particular concern that the inability of Jordanian women to pass their nationality on to their children when the child's father is a foreign national may leave children at risk of statelessness. The Committee also raised the discriminatory laws on parental responsibilities, whereby mothers and fathers are not seen as having equal rights and duties towards their children, and unmarried mothers and their children are not entitled to the same benefits and protections as their married counterparts. The Jordanian juvenile justice system was also the source of a number of serious concerns for the Committee, including the very low minimum age of criminal responsibility (7 years); the use of deprivation of liberty as other than a measure of last resort; the failure to establish specialised juvenile justice courts with adequate resources; and the failure to provide all children in conflict with the law access to free legal assistance. In response to these systemic failings, the Committee urged the State to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility beyond the age of 10 years as foreseen in the draft Child Rights Act, to develop its draft Juvenile Justice Reform Programme, including by introducing a range of alternative measures to deprivation of liberty, and to expand legal aid across the juvenile justice system. The Committee also highlighted a number of gaps in national law with regards to the protection of children's rights. The Committee particularly expressed concern at the absence of a legal framework to address the plight of refugee and asylum-seeking children, and to ensure that children within Jordan's borders have access to education on an equal basis with Jordanian citizens. The Committee also expressed concern at the absence of a specific framework to protect children from trafficking, and the insufficient legal protections of boys affected by commercial sexual exploitation. Current legal reform projects At the time of the 2006 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, a draft Child Rights Act was under consideration. When the Convention on the Rights of the Child was published in the Official Gazette, the Bill was withdrawn and, at the time of writing, had not yet been enacted.