JORDAN: Launch of the First National Conference to Address Violence Against Women and Children

All local newspapers and Petra News Agency reported on 19 December that the “First Jordanian National Conference for the Prevention of Violence against Children and Women: ‘Reality and Challenges’ was launched by the Jordan River Foundation/Queen Rania Foundation in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF.

Also, and for the first time in Jordan, a network of Jordanian professionals to prevent all sort of violence against children was launched.

The Queen’s Representative, the Minister of Social Development Mrs. Nisreen Barakat, said that Jordan worked to develop an integrated work plan for all the legislative and executive institutions, and ratified and committed to all international conventions on human rights.

From his part, Mr. Luc Stevens, UN Resident Coordinator and UNFPA Representative in Jordan, said that the timing of this conference is very important as it comes days after we concluded the global annual 16 Days campaign to end violence against women which is marked every year from 25 November to 10 December.

The conference also comes at a very opportune time as the UN agencies are finalizing the UNDAF, the United Nations Assistance Framework for the coming five years and developing their detailed plans with their national partners. UNFPA and many other agencies have identified violence against women and children as a key area that we need to continue working closely on and we are hoping that the outcome of the conference will be a concrete road map that we can all turn to as we develop our detailed plans for the years to come.

He also affirmed that this issue is a top priority for the United Nations, stating that UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in Jordan, has been working for the past five years with the Ministry of Health and many other partners to address this and to integrate the detection and care for women victims of violence within the health system in close coordination with UNICEF. We are looking for continued and expanded partnerships as we respond to your priorities and join hands with all partners to bring greater attention and speak as one against this unacceptable violation of human rights.  Read in Arabic: Al Rai, Ad Dustour, Al Arabal, and Petra News Agency Read in English: Jordan Times