According to HRW, the assault includes harassment and questioning.
Human Rights Watch announced on Tuesday that:
- Jordan’s authorities have organized an illegal assault on free expression and assemblage related to gender and sexuality and have routinely targeted Transgender rights activists.
- The intimidation and illegal interference of security forces with LGBT conducting has pushed activism even further underwater and forced LGBT leaders to either self-censor or leave Jordan.
- Respect for freedom of expression and association should be a requirement for all applications, according to Jordan’s international colleagues who support its intelligence agencies.
This is the HRW speech from December 5.
Human Rights Watch reported today that the authorities in Jordan have organized an illegal crackdown on free expression and assembly regarding gender and sexuality and have routinely targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) rights activists.
Human Rights Watch documented instances in which LGBT activists in Jordan were questioned about their work by the General Intelligence Department ( GID ) and the Preventive Security division of the Public Security Directorate, who then threatened them with violence, arrest, and prosecution. As a result, several activists were forced to close their organizations, stop their activities, or even leave the country in some cases. State officials have also disparaged LGBT rights activists online based on their sexual preference, and users of social media have posted images of them along with information calling for murder.
According to Rasha Younes, top LGBT right researcher at Human Rights Watch,” Jordanian authorities have launched a coordinated invasion against LGBT Rights activists, aimed at eradicating any discussion about sex and sexuality from the public and private circles.” ” Security forces ‘ harassment strategies and illegal meddling in LGBT managing have propelled engagement more under and forced civil society leaders into an impossibility: serious self-censorship or fleeing Jordan.”
13 LGBT rights activists from Jordan were interviewed by Human Rights Watch, along with the director of an alternate media initiative who was targeted website and the owner of a cultural center in Amman who had to cancel an LGBT function according to official coercion. Government officials, nonprofit organizations, and individuals ‘ statements were also examined by Human Rights Watch, as well as the visual media that activists used to record net harassment incidents against them on social media.
According to everyone who was questioned, security forces, especially the intellect firm, constantly tried to intimidate them by calling them in for questioning. The testing of a movie about gay men was prematurely canceled, according to three activists, who claimed that the governor of Amman questioned them. According to two managers of LGBT organizations, they were compelled to shut down their businesses in Jordan, stop doing business there, and leave the country due to established harassment.
One activist claimed that Preventive Security officials forced him to mark a promise promising to inform the governor of all the activities taking place at his venue. Another advocate claimed to have been the target of net abuse while being urged to be burned alive on social media.
While LGBT rights activists are not alone in Jordanian authorities ‘ targeting of civic space, the combination of social exclusion and a precarious legal environment, such as the use of ambiguous “morality” provisions against LGBT people, quells LGBT appearance both online and offline. In Jordan, there are no obvious laws that forbid same-sex relationships, but there is also no regulations that shields LGBT people from discrimination in a country where animosity toward them is pervasive. Security forces and private individuals appear to be free to target LGBT people without consequence thanks to the combination of ambiguous conscience laws, open hostility, and the lack of legal protection.
Jordanian authorities passed a new, repressive cybercrime law in August 2023 that threatens internet customers ‘ right to privacy, further weakens free talk online, and establishes new authority to regulate social media. It includes clauses that could be used by authorities to target online information on gender and gender as well as people who use online platforms to promote LGBT rights. The new legislation, according to an advocate, did “destroy all kinds of LGBT appearance online” and “intensify” “interference in people’s private lives.”
Human Rights Watch documented the extensive internet effects of online harassment, blackmail, and trap of LGBT people in Jordan in a statement from 2023, as well as the reliance on illegally obtained online information based on arbitrary telephone searches in prosecutions. Gay people in Jordan claimed they felt unsafe expressing themselves as a result of modern targeting, and that LGBT rights advocacy has consequently suffered.
Even when the dangers amounted to nothing more than harassment, every LGBT rights activist who was questioned said that being targeted by the authorities had negative effects. For fear of being prosecuted, the majority of protesters prematurely shut down their organizations and groups.
A producer of an LGBT rights firm claimed that after what he called an “unprecedented, coordinated assault” by the government, the party was forced to be shut down in January. We [my partner and I] had to keep all behind—our jobs, friends, families, and memories—and leave the country, he said. It is terrifying how much power security forces can wield through harassment alone, without even having to move an inch. The scariest part was that we knew they may carry out all of their threats if we ever returned house. They threatened to endanger our lives.
The situation was described by another activist as follows:” Our only option was to quit our procedures, to avert impending trial, and escape Jordan.” Our political action and activism were shattered by the constant government pressure over the years, which grew along with our recognition as gay activists. The most effective instrument of state repression in Jordan is coercion.
Her present situation was described by one of the several LGBT rights activists still living in Jordan as” Merely existing in Amman has become dreadful.” We are compelled to remain hyperaware of our environment as individuals because we cannot carry on with our job as activists.
The enjoyment of another individual rights as well as the successful operation of a political society depend on the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression, assemblage, and association. Fundamental human rights, such as free speech, assembly, and connection, as well as similar legal protection, are guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Jordan is a state group.
The United States and the European Union, which offer Jordan’s security agencies immediate support and training, does publicly and explicitly denounce security force violations relating to freedom of expression, association, and assembly, including against LGBT people. They should also make sure that all current programs are based on respect for these freedoms.
LGBT advocacy will persist in Jordan despite express repression, and legal society’s resistance will not be put down, according to Younes. ” Jordanian regulators should protect everyone’s rights, including by defending freedom of expression, assemblage, and connection, as well as the protection of digital communications.”
