Jordan joins COMMIT initiative, also signs MoU with UN Women

[Also available in Arabic]

Under the patronage of His Excellency Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and in the presence of UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Jordanian Government today joined UN Women’s COMMIT initiative by announcing its commitment to address and prevent violence against women and girls.

In a ceremony attended by the representative of the Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Her Excellency Lana Mamkegh, and Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka, The Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW), Secretary-General, Her Excellency Secretary General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW), Asma Khader, announced the concrete steps that Jordan will take towards ending violence against women and girls.

These specific measures include rolling out a national strategy to end violence against women, undertaking legislative reforms to improve the legal and judicial responses to violence against women as well as improving the data availability on the prevalence of violence against women.

With this commitment, Jordan joins more than 61 other Governments that have pledged to make ending violence against women a top priority.

The initiative calls on leaders worldwide to make concrete national commitments to end violence against women and girls. By the end of 2013, more than 61 countries and the European Union had joined the initiative and announced specific measures to address and prevent violence against women and girls, ranging from improving laws to increasing the number of women in law enforcement, peacekeeping forces and frontline services.

“I am pleased to be part of this event today,” said Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka. “I commend the Government of Jordan for its commitment to end violence against women and for taking steps forward to advance women’s rights, leadership and political participation in its recent legislative reforms. UN Women is committed to strengthen our partnership and deepen our cooperation to advance women’s rights and gender equality in the kingdom.”

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Ms. Khader, Secretary General of the JNCW, as well as Giuseppe Belsito, Representative of UN Women, Jordan.

“The new agreement will pave the way forward for both Jordan and UN Women to further enhance their mutual cooperation to address issues with high priority for the status of women in the country… We will work together on women’s rights, empowerment and gender equality,” Mr. Belsito added. 

“The new MoU will pave the way forward for stronger partnership and collaboration between UN Women and the Jordanian Government…We will intensify our efforts and strengthen our collaboration with national institutions to advance women’s rights, empowerment and gender equality.” 

Underlining the importance of ending violence against women, Ms. Khader said, “While we announce a number of strong commitments today to address and prevent violence against women, we realize that protecting women from gender-based violence is a prerequisite to empowering them and to ensuring their full participation in all fields.” 

“Also, signing the MoU between the JNCW and UN Women today is a strong expression of the strategic partnership and the full cooperation between the two organizations to implement certain programmes aiming to achieve our mutual objectives to enhance women’s status in the country,” she added.

For further information, please contact Mr. Khaled Awasa, UN Women Communication Specialist, Khaled.awasa[at]unwomen.org T: 962 079 618 8118