Rights organisation slams Jordan over LGBTQ+ rights
Human rights organizations denounce systematic violations of LGBTQ+ people’s rights in Jordan.
On the 4th of December, Human Rights Watch said in a report that in Jordan, the national authorities target systematically LGBTQ+ rights activists and have illegally violated the freedom of expression related to gender and sexuality.
Human Rights Watch documented many cases, that demonstrate that Jordan’s General Intelligence Department and the Preventive Security Department of the Public Security Directorate interrogated LGBTQ+ activists and threatened them through physical and psychological violence, arrests, and persecution, forcing activists to close their sites and stop their activities, and in some extreme cases, forced them to leave the country.
Jordan has no law that criminalizes homosexuality. However, the country does not protect the community, reported The New Arab.
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LGBTQ+ issue is considered, by Jordanian politicians, as “immoral”. They express publicly that it corrupts society’s values. This type of public speech on the subject doesn’t allow LGBTQ+ people to feel safe in their country. The Jordanian law criminalizes online “immoral” activities. This, according to many activists, can lead to the criminalization of their identity and activism, says The New Arab.
In August, The Guardian reported the Jordanian secret police had been accused by some gay activists of threatening them by “outing” them to their families.
Rasha Younes, a senior LGBTQ+ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, claims that “outing” LGBTQ+ people made them lose their jobs, be subjected to violence from their families, and flee the country to avoid persecution.
Human Rights Watch/The New Arab/The Guardian
