A report by Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies, titled "Civil society organizations' efforts to develop and promote human rights," revealed that the work of civil society organizations (CSOs) is hampered by several challenges, including a lack of freedom of speech or expression.
The report showed the Government's negative attitude towards CSOs, and its accusations that CSOs provide a base for hostile foreign actors and create social issues, was one of the most significant obstacles for CSOs, as it prevents them from implementing their projects and programmes.
The report noted that CSOs are required to be under the supervision of the “competent Ministry”, and that in some instances, the Ministry is uncooperative, and requests administrative and financial documents periodically without providing justification to the organization. In some instances, instead of providing a justification for requiring some administrative or financial documents, the Ministry will merely inform the CSO that its paperwork is insufficient and needs to be completed.
The report stressed that there other obstacles faced by CSOs, including: legislation governing the work of CSOs, combined with the absence of coordination mechanisms between government representatives and representatives of CSOs, and the lack of coordination between CSOs themselves hinders cooperation in the implementation of joint activities and projects.
The report aims to reveal the efforts of CSOs on development issues and human rights promotion in light of the challenges and obstacles that affects the work of CSOs in Jordan, and to assess the needs of these organizations to develop proposals on training programs that meet these needs, considering the repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The report made several recommendations to improve the work of civil society organizations, the most important of which were: strengthening partnership between the Government and civil society organizations, encouraging the private sector to partner with organizations as part of the process of development and as a form of corporate social responsibility, and strengthening partnerships between civil society organizations.