AMMAN
— Danish human rights organization the Danish Institute Against Torture, also
known as DIGNITY, concluded last month a legal awareness campaign that had run
from January til the end of November.
اضافة اعلان
With
the “Increased Legal Awareness of Citizens on their Rights under the Law”
project, DIGNITY hoped to spark change at the local and national levels with
the help of national and grassroots organizations.
Sparking change at the local and national levels through strong
participatory approaches from national and grassroots organizations, DIGNITY,
the Danish Institute Against Torture, has concluded its “Increased Legal
Awareness of Citizens on their Rights under the Law” project, which kicked off
in January 2022 and ran through November 2022.
The
project utilized the expertise of various parties to advance progress in the
justice sector. As a leading implementing organization, DIGNITY brought to the
table the Ministry of Justice, the Nour Al-Hussein Foundation’s Community Development
Institute (NHF-CDI), and several senior legal consultants to implement legal
awareness-raising sessions and media campaigns. The project's underlying theme
is the rule of law and access to justice, focusing on the rights of people with
disabilities, minorities, vulnerable groups, and legal aid systems and
services.
The
project was co-funded by the EU and the Spanish
Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID)
as part of the action designed to support the Government of Jordan in consolidating
the Rule of Law, where legal aid has been identified as a key area to improve
access to justice. AECID offered its knowledge and pertinent experience to
support the European initiative.
Throughout
the project, DIGNITY provided technical input to partners and consultants, enhanced
their cooperation, and managed the flow of information. Moreover, DIGNITY led
media campaigns that aimed to create interpersonal awareness through
semi-structured, one-on-one dialogues as a cornerstone to enacting change at
the individual level and, in so doing, enhancing new understandings of the law
and the justice system among the public.
“Increasing public
awareness of the different arrays of legal rights as stipulated in local law
has proven to be a unique and successful experience,” said Yasar Abduh, DIGNITYs Jordan office director. “The outreach of our
campaign through the different media has resonated very well within our
community and our partners.”
“It
is through continuous awareness-raising and capacity-building of our community
and partners that DIGNITY can ultimately fulfill its mandate to prevent torture
and promote human rights,” she said.
Speaking
to Jordan News, project officer Amwaj Al-Zoubi said: “I am especially proud of
the outcomes we have achieved under this project. With our strong partnerships
and generous fund, we were able to contribute towards strengthening the rule of
the law in Jordan.”
“Our objective from the beginning was to reach
and raise people’s legal awareness; hence, empowering them to claim their
rights,” she continued. “This objective served as a catalyst throughout the
implementation of the project and directed our best efforts towards serving the
greater interest.”
Each
media campaign is comprised of several communication solutions. DIGNITY employed audio channels such as radio spots broadcast on Radio Al-Balad, and a podcast
show which streamed on all major podcast-hosting platforms and two radio
stations, Radio Al Balad and Sowt Al Karak. In addition to audio broadcasts, DIGNITY used visual media such as awareness-raising commercials, aired on Roya TV for
an extended period, as well as digital posts on the DIGNITY -Jordan Facebook page. Brochures and posters, among other
educational publications, were part of the campaign. Combined, the media
campaigns reached a total of 4 million individuals.
However,
it is DIGNITY's cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
that fast-tracked progress towards the mutual goal of increasing the awareness
of citizens and residents on legal rights. According to Nizar Kharabsheh, the ministry’s spokesperson, this project complements the
ministry’s Strategy for Media and Communication for the Justice Sector in
Jordan, by contributing to the dissemination of legal culture and building
confidence in the rule of law through the implementation of the innovative
awareness campaigns.
The
other standing pillar of the project is the vital grassroots, bottom-up awareness
sessions, held in all twelve governorates across the Kingdom to increase the
awareness of 1,000 right-holders on their legal rights, create an alternative neighborhood-based
voice that adheres to the rule of law, facilitate means for local communities
to become equal partners in the project, and reduce access-to-information inequalities.
This
pillar was implemented by the NHF-CDI, leveraging the foundation’s strong outreach,
physical presence, and long-term relations with community-based organizations (CBOs)
across the Kingdom to conduct institutional and technical capacity-building
workshops and empower the local communities the project aims to reach.
According
to Mohammed Al-Zoubi, NHF-CDI director, the partnership with DIGNITY resulted
in a series of interventions towards achieving the overall objective of the
project. “We selected and partnered with 24 CBOs. We built the capacities,
strategies, and governance of these CBOs through an institutional capacity-building
program to support their role as co-actors in the local development of their
communities with a focus on legal rights and legal aid,” he explained.
NHF-CDI
not only managed to capture participants’ perceptions and attitudes towards
legal experiences, but also “conducted 20 awareness workshops entitled ‘How to
legally protect your business’ targeting 341 micro-business owners,” he added. The
workshops covered an array of topics including legal categories for businesses,
companies law, and registering and licensing businesses with a focus on
home-based businesses.
The
legal awareness sessions were not only held at CBOs — they also extended to
universities, where they were presented to students of various majors and
backgrounds. The goal of these sessions was to impart proper legal knowledge to
youth, allowing them to realize their potential as broad-minded citizens. This approach
is consistent with DIGNITY's emphasis on youth as an integral part of inclusive
and sustainable development.
Such
projects are highly needed, as they offer a new narrative on introducing change
in Jordan by engaging different actors in increasing the capacity and
engagement of communities’ peer-to peer advocacy on the rule of law.
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