Jordan – IMM situation

IMM name: The National Centre for Human Rights HCD

IMM type: Other entity. National Centre for Human Rights (HCD) and NCHR

CRPD ratification date: 31 March 2008

IMM legal framework: Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities No 20 for the Year 2017 which was published in the official gazette on 1st June 2017.

Jordan ratified the CRPD on 31 March 2008. Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities No. 20 for the Year 2017, which was published in the official gazette on 1st June 2017, assigned the mandate to the National Centre for Human Rights HCD.

The IMM is part of a monitoring framework consisting of another or other entities. Jordan’s Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (HCD) was established in 2008. Since 2014, it has been led by Prince Mired Raad Zeid Al-Hussein, as a governmental organization by virtue of a new law that was enforced in September 2017 – the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities No. 20 for the Year 2017. HCD undertakes numerous roles, including policy development and review; capacity building and awareness-raising; development of accreditation standards; monitoring and evaluation; research and information-sharing. It is the primary technical focal point on all things relating to disability, to assist national organizations in providing services in an inclusive and accessible manner for all. To ensure a participatory approach in policy and decision-making, the organisation is governed by a Board of Trustees that is comprised of 25 members, including the President of HCD –with 13 members representing people with different types of disabilities, three representing families and eight independent experts in the field.

Via its technical and administrative departments spread through its four branches respectively, HCD ensures its know-how and services are disseminated throughout all the areas of Jordan. The Administrative Affairs Department HCD’s mandate as Jordan’s primary disability reference in policy and programming as well as practice, corresponds to the international agreements and policies, national laws and policies pertaining to disability-inclusive development, not least the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The IMM is mandated with the following functions:

• Promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, including through education, outreach, the media, training, and capacity building
• Protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, including by receiving, investigating, and resolving complaints, or by mediating conflicts and monitoring activities and reporting
• Monitoring the implementation of the CRPD

The IMM undertakes/has undertaken activities such as developing a plan to monitor, evaluating policy, offering legal and policy advice to ensure compliance with the CRPD, submitting alternative reports to the CRPD Committee, as well as cooperating with other domestic mechanisms, rights treaty bodies or international human rights mechanism. It includes the following activities:

• Developing a plan to monitor the implementation of the CRPD by the State
• Evaluating policy, legislative and administrative compliance with the CRPD
• Offering legal and policy advice to ensure compliance with the CRPD and other relevant international human rights obligations of the State
• Promoting the rights of women and girls with disabilities in legislation and policies, including in the disability and gender-equality legislation and programmes
• Initiating or undertaking research studies on the rights of persons with disabilities
• Receiving and considering complaints or reviewing the outcome of complaints received by the NHRI
• Focusing on monitoring the rights of women and girls with disabilities and reporting
• Undertaking investigations on the rights of persons with disabilities
• Submitting alternative reports to the CRPD Committee and other relevant human rights treaty bodies or international human rights mechanisms
• Participating in the preparation of the State party’s periodic reports to the CRPD Committee
• Cooperating with other domestic mechanisms, as appropriate, such as the Parliament, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) and Equality Bodies, with the aim to reinforce human rights monitoring and reporting at the national level
• Liaising with the focal point(s) designated within the government under Article 33(1) for matters relating to the Convention’s implementation
• Liaising with National Mechanisms for Reporting and Follow-Up on matters relating to the implementation of the CRPD.

The IMM’s membership is composed of persons with disabilities and representatives of organisations of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, women with disabilities and their representative organizations participate in the membership and managerial functions of the independent monitoring mechanism or framework. The monitoring activities in which persons with disabilities or their representatives’ organizations have been involved include:

• Monitoring of public policies and legislation concerning persons with disabilities
• Monitoring the situation of persons with disabilities in institutions such as residential care centres and other places of institutionalisation
• Participating in joint initiatives between the National Preventive Mechanism or the Independent Monitoring Mechanism to monitor places of detention, including prisons, police stations and mental health institutions.

Persons with disabilities attend the decision-making process of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism; they have a voice and the right to vote. Persons with disabilities attend the decision-making process of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism, they have a voice throughout the deliberations. Persons with disabilities as designated experts on disability are invited and/or hired to support specific programmes in the Independent Monitoring Mechanism. Persons with disabilities monitoring their rights may submit findings or allegations of human rights violations to the Independent Monitoring Mechanism. In addition, persons with disabilities identifying themselves as self-advocates are invited to join specific monitoring activities by the Independent Monitoring Mechanism.

Note: If you wish to rectify or provide more information regarding your IMM, please contact ohchr-CRPDIMM@un.org