By Ezra Karmel *
Introduction
Since ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2008, the Jordanian government has accomplished meaningful
progress toward protecting the rights of persons with disabilities to participate
in political life in Jordan. The most significant successes in this regard have
been achieved since the establishment of the Independent Electoral Commission
in 2012. In the 2013 general parliamentary elections – and especially in the subsequent sub-elections – persons with
disabilities enjoyed considerably better conditions than in any previous
elections. Despite this progress, however, key barriers remain, and much more must
still be done to 1) make voting stations more accessible, 2) improve
transportation for persons with mobility disabilities, and 3) enhance awareness
so that all persons with physical disabilities know that they can vote and are
aware of the special accommodations that have been made to enable them to do so.
Even more work needs to be done to ensure that persons with mental disabilities
are able to engage in the electoral process. While persons with physical
disabilities are legally entitled to vote in Jordan (and are usually only
prevented from doing so as a result of insufficient accessibility or awareness),
Jordanian law continues to deny persons with mental disabilities the freedom to
exercise their voting rights.
Jordan’s Legal Commitments to Ensuring that
Persons with Disabilities Enjoy the Right to Vote
Jordan has committed itself to
protecting the political rights of persons with disabilities through both its
domestic laws and its ratification of international conventions. The most
important of Jordan’s international commitments in this regard is the CRPD,
which the Kingdom ratified without stipulating any reservations.
Article 29 of the CRPD
outlines the steps that states parties must take to protect the political rights
of persons with disabilities:
States Parties shall guarantee to persons with
disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal
basis with others, and shall undertake:
(a) To ensure that persons with disabilities can
effectively and fully participate in political and public life on an equal
basis with others, directly or through freely chosen representatives, including
the right and opportunity for persons with disabilities to vote and be elected,
inter alia, by:
(i) Ensuring that voting procedures, facilities
and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use;
(ii) Protecting the right of persons with
disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums
without intimidation, and to stand for elections, to effectively hold office
and perform all public functions at all levels of government, facilitating the
use of assistive and new technologies where appropriate;
(iii) Guaranteeing the free expression of the will
of persons with disabilities as electors and to this end, where necessary, at
their request, allowing assistance in voting by a person of their own choice;
(b) To promote actively an environment in which
persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in the conduct
of public affairs, without discrimination and on an equal basis with others,
and encourage their participation in public affairs, including:
(i) Participation in non-governmental
organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of
the country, and in the activities and administration of political parties;
(ii) Forming and joining organizations of persons
with disabilities to represent persons with disabilities at international,
national, regional and local levels.
In complying with the CRPD’s requirement that it be translated into
national legislation, Jordan appointed a special committee in 2006 headed by HRH Prince Raad Bin Zeid to review the existing Disabled Persons Law of 1993.[2]
The following year, Jordan passed the Law on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities (No. 31), 2007, which replaced the 1993 law. The Law explicitly outlines Jordan’s commitment
to ensuring that persons with disabilities are able to vote:
Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Law No 31) 2007[3]
Article 4 (G)
1: The right of persons with
disabilities to run for elections and cast ballots in various domains and avail
them to accessible and suitable facilities that shall enable them to vote by
secret ballot.
2: The rights of persons with
disabilities to have a suitable environment to participate effectively in all
public affairs without discrimination, including the right to participate in
non-government organizations and bodies related to public and political life
In the same year as Jordan
passed the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, HM King Abdullah II
also approved the National Disability Strategy, which was designed to be
implemented through two phases (2007-2009 and 2010-2015). More holistic, yet
less detailed, than the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the
Strategy aims to achieve greater respect for the rights of persons with
disabilities and to foster their integration in social, economic, and public life. The National Disability Strategy is less explicit about voting rights
than the Law on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but it includes as one of its “five main
outputs” the “[f]urther integration of persons with
disabilities in different areas of life (educational, professional, social,
cultural, political and employment)”.[4]
Ensuring that persons with
disabilities are able to exercise their rights requires more than just passing
laws and strategies that specifically focus on persons with disabilities; it
requires changing all of a country’s laws to reflect the same commitment to the
rights of persons with disabilities. In addition to passing laws that explicitly
focus on the rights of persons with disabilities, therefore, Jordan’s Higher
Council for the Affairs of Persons with Disabilities (HCD) has devoted
significant efforts to ensuring that surrounding legal frameworks are
disability mainstreamed. Most pertinently, Jordan’s national Election Law has
been reformed in an effort to enable persons with disabilities to participate:
Election Law for the Chamber of Deputies (Law No. 25) 2012[5]
Article 41
The procedures stipulated in Article (39) of this
law [which outlines the procedures for casting votes] shall be followed to
enable persons with disabilities to exercise their right to vote through their
escorts, while taking into consideration any special procedures specified for
this purpose by the Executive Regulations.
While the Election Law for the Chamber of Deputies is
vague in regards to persons with disabilities, the Executive Instructions of
the IEC are much more comprehensive. The most salient of the Executive
Instructions is No. 10 of 2012:
IEC Executive
Instruction (No. 10) 2012 (Executive Instructions Relating to Polling and
Counting)[6]
Procedures for Persons with Disabilities
Article (8)
A. Priority for polling shall be given
to voters with disabilities.
B. Persons with disabilities shall exercise
their right to vote by themselves if they are able to do so, according to the
same steps and procedures stipulated in Article (7) of these instructions.
C. Voters with disabilities who are
not able to vote by themselves shall exercise the right to vote through the use
of an escort of their choice (the escort should not be less than 18 years of
age on election day), according to the provisions stipulated in Article (7) of
these instructions, taking into consideration the following procedures:
1: The polling and counting committee
shall verify the identity of the person accompanying the person with disability
by examining his ID and checking that there is no ink on the smallest finger of
his left hand, and shall register his name in a special list prepared for this
purpose.
2: The two ballot papers shall be
handed over to the voter himself or to the person accompanying him if the voter
is unable to take them.
3: The person with a disability and
his escort shall be informed that the latter shall write the name of the
candidate on the ballot paper of the local electoral district and mark the
name, number, and code of the list the voter wants to vote for.
4: The person accompanying the
disabled voter shall write down the name of the candidate chosen by the voter
on the ballot paper of the local electoral district and shall mark the name,
number, and code of the list chosen by the voter on the ballot paper of the
general electoral district.
5: The person accompanying the
disabled voter shall fold each of the two ballot papers separately and shall
head, together with the disabled person, towards the two boxes to put each
paper in the box allocated to it.
6: The voter and the person
accompanying him shall then head towards the polling and counting committee and
the disabled voter shall dip the index finger of his left hand in the special
ink. The person accompanying him shall dip the smallest finger of his left hand
in the same ink.
D. If one of the persons with
disabilities comes to the polling room unaccompanied by a person to help him,
the head of the polling and counting committee shall help him in the voting
booth, confidentially, by writing down the name of the candidate for whom the
voter wants to vote on the ballot paper of the local electoral district and
marking the list which he wants to vote for on the general electoral district’s
ballot paper. The name of the head of the polling and counting committee shall be recorded in a special log stating that
he helped the voter cast his vote.
2013 National Elections: A Step In the Right
Direction
Despite the fact that the newly established IEC had only limited time
to prepare for the 2013 parliamentary elections, it worked hard to ensure that
persons with disabilities were better able to enjoy the franchise than in
previous elections. On Election Day, the IEC gave priority to persons with
disabilities at voting stations and brought together youth volunteers to help
persons with disabilities at all rural stations. Not only was the election
staff trained to accommodate persons with disabilities, but it also closely followed
the Executive Instructions and voters with disabilities were therefore able to
bring an escort with them to help them vote. These measures proved particularly
important for persons with visual disabilities, as braille ballots are not yet
available in Jordan. The IEC also put up posters and distributed brochures in
the voting stations, which explained voting procedures simply and pictorially.
On some of these brochures and posters, pictures of persons with disabilities
were also included. On the ballots themselves, pictures of candidates (for
regional seats) and list logos (for national seats) were included to help
illiterate voters and voters with hearing disabilities (because of the high
rate of illiteracy among the latter).
Through these measures, persons with disabilities enjoyed a more
inclusive voting process than even before. Crucially, instances of verbal vote
casting – which had previously constituted a very prevalent practice among
voters with disabilities – were almost eliminated in the 2013 elections.[7] As a
result of the success of these new voting mechanisms, disability persons
organizations (DPOs) and independent electoral monitors noted very few transgressions
in the actual voting process. However, both DPOs and independent monitors highlighted
three key shortcomings in the electoral process: 1) insufficient awareness
campaigns for persons with disabilities, 2) a lack of disability accessibility
at voting stations, and 3) a lack of disability accessibility to and from
voting stations.
Insufficient Awareness Campaigns for Persons with Disabilities
Before the election, the IEC produced TV ads and films about electoral
procedures and voting rights that included sign language translation.[8] It also
produced more bespoke videos for persons with disabilities that explained the
accommodations available to help them exercise their right to vote. The IEC
also made its website accessible for persons with visual disabilities. Despite
this campaign, however, independent election observers and DPOs noted that the
lack of awareness among persons with disabilities nonetheless represented a key
impediment to the participation of persons with disabilities in the electoral
process.[9] In a focus group convened with persons with disabilities, most participants
indicated that they had not voted. A number of participants stated that they did
not vote because they were either unaware of their right or they did not know
that it was necessary to pick up a voter card in advance of Election Day.[10] Moreover,
some participants said that they did not vote because they had received
insufficient information about how the process worked and what platforms
candidates stood for.[11]
Independent election monitors reported that even though much of the
IEC’s awareness campaigns had sign translation and tailored videos for persons
with disabilities, insufficient understanding of the electoral process was
particularly acute among persons with hearing disabilities.[12] Election
observers noted that many persons with hearing disabilities did not understand
how the electoral process worked. Some, for instance, did not know how many votes
they were able to cast or the difference between regional and national seats. While
persons with hearing disabilities were able to bring an escort to assist them,
many arrived at the voting station without an escort (perhaps because they were
unaware of their right to bring one), and most of the stations lacked a staff
member capable of communicating in sign language. In fact, sign language
translators were only available in 36 stations, covering nine of Jordan’s 12
governorates.[13]
Appreciating the shortcomings of the awareness campaigns during the
general elections and able to devote greater time to raising awareness, the IEC
launched a much more effective awareness campaign for the subsequent
sub-elections in 2013. Independent election monitors noted that the awareness
campaign launched for the last sub-election, which took place in Irbid, was
extremely comprehensive and very inclusive, and that voters with disabilities
were much better informed about their voting rights and electoral procedures.
Lack of Disability Accessibility at Voting Stations
Monitoring groups also highlighted the lack of physical accessibility
at most of the polling stations. This factor is crucial, as there is no option
to vote remotely in Jordan. While Jordanian law does not require that polling
stations be accessible to persons with disabilities (although the Executive
Instructions state that persons with disabilities should be given priority to
vote), the IEC has fortunately prioritized increased accessibility.[14] Despite this prioritization,
however, the IEC was unable to make significant improvement to voting station
accessibility for the 2013 elections because it had insufficient time before the election to conduct a full accessibility
assessment.[15]
Because of this time limitation, the IEC was forced to rely upon the
voting stations that had been chosen by the Ministry of Interior for the
previous election. Very few of these stations were accessible: of the 1,484
stations that were used in the 2013 elections, only 226 were reported as being
accessible.[16]
The IEC, therefore, tried to disseminate information regarding the location of
these stations so that persons with disabilities would register at them.[17]
However, when the IEC had sufficient time to conduct an assessment of the
polling stations following the elections, it reported that even many of the 226
supposedly accessible stations were far from being accessible. 99 of the 226 stations
had stairs at the entrance and no ramp, and out of 749 voting rooms that were
above ground level in the stations, only 279 were accessible to persons with
mobility disabilities.[18]
The IEC’s
ability to effectively provide accessible stations to persons with disabilities
has, according
to Samar Tarawneh, Head of the Procedures and
Training Department of the IEC, also been limited by a lack of information
about persons with disabilities, their numbers, and their geographical
locations in the Kingdom.[19] These
limitations are a result of the general information deficit regarding persons
with disabilities in Jordan. Not only is there a dearth of data about voters
with disabilities, there are not even clear statistics about the number of
persons with disabilities in the Kingdom or where they are located. In the last Jordanian census,
which was conducted in 2004, the government’s Department of Statistics (DoS)
calculated that there were 62,986 persons with disabilities in Jordan (of a
total population of 5,103,639).[20]
As such, the census indicates that persons with disabilities accounted for only
1.23 percent of Jordan’s population in 2004. The HCD recently conducted field
tests in Amman and Zarqa in cooperation with the DoS. These tests showed that
persons with disabilities in those areas account for 13.12 percent of the
population (a number that reflects the nationwide calculations of numerous
international organizations).[21]
The methods used during the field tests, which are derived from the methodology
of the Washington Group on
Disability Statistics, will be
employed by the DoS to determine the number of persons with disabilities in
Jordan when it conducts surveys for its 2015 Census this November. The implementation
of these more comprehensive techniques should yield more accurate statistics
and, therefore, help the IEC to better reach persons with disabilities in
future elections.
To further enhance electoral inclusiveness for persons with
disabilities, the IEC has produced a new manual that will be distributed to all
stations in preparation for the next elections. The IEC will also assess and
rate voting stations, giving each station a letter grade to indicate its level
of accessibility. Top rated stations, noted Nidal Bukhari, the Head of the
Planning and Field Coordination Department at the IEC, will be very sparse and
will primarily represent stations located in the schools that USAID has
recently constructed.[22] While
Bukhari indicated that these schools are still not perfectly accessible, they
represent the most accessible structures in many communities.
The IEC is planning to implement a very comprehensive awareness campaign
for the next parliamentary elections (which will likely take place in 2017), so
that persons with disabilities can take advantage of the accessibility assessments
that have been done. The importance of this campaign will drastically increase if
the government’s newly proposed election law passes. The draft law eliminates
voter cards, allowing Jordanians who are on the voter list to simply bring
their ID to voting stations on Election Day. While this change could be very
positive (as many persons with disabilities were unable to vote in the last
elections because they did not know that they needed to pick up a voter card in
advance), it also means that information regarding accessible stations cannot
be provided to persons with disabilities when they go to pick up their voter
cards and, thus, the information will likely have to be disseminated solely
through awareness campaigns. The IEC stated that if the law passes, discussions
would then begin about how to address this issue.[23]
Lack of Disability Accessibility to and from Voting Stations
In addition to the inaccessibility of the voting stations themselves,
persons with mobility disabilities were also limited by the absence of
accessible transportation options. Because Jordan lacks an accessible public
transit system, transportation restrictions prevented many persons with
disabilities from obtaining voter cards or casting their ballots. In the
absence of public transportation options, election candidates and parties usually
fill this vacuum, providing transportation to voters across the country. While
candidates are also willing to offer transportation to persons with
disabilities, the majority of persons with disabilities in the focus group held
for this paper stated that they either did not know this was an option or they
did not possess any information about which candidates offered such services.
Other participants noted that they would prefer to not have to rely on
candidates for transportation to voting stations. To address this issue of
transportation, a handful of NGOs tried to provide persons with disabilities
with accessible transportation during the 2013 elections. Likewise, some DPOs
directly provided money to persons with disabilities so that they could take
taxis to the voting stations.[24] While
the IEC recognizes that transportation is a key problem, the Head of its
Planning and Field Coordination Department stated that all the IEC can do is
work to locate stations as close as possible to public transportation routes.[25]
Persons with Mental Disabilities
The commitment that Jordan
has demonstrated in trying to protect the voting rights of persons with
physical disabilities has not been matched by a similar commitment to the
rights of persons with mental disabilities. Despite the
obstacles that persons with physical disabilities continue to face in trying to
exercise their right to vote, Jordanian law protects their freedom to exercise
this right and the IEC is clearly working to protect this freedom. Persons with
mental disabilities, however, are legally denied the ability to exercise their
right to vote in Jordan. In the 2012 Election Law, Article 3 (D) outlines the
grounds upon which Jordanians can be “deprived of their right to vote”.[26] Within
this article, “[a]ny person who is insane or demented or has been sequestered
for any other reason” is included. This exclusion of “insane” persons from the
franchise is also present in Article 3 (C) of the new draft election law, which
was proposed by the government in August 2015, and in Article 15 (B) of the
current Municipalities Law.[27]
The law provides no clear definition of what constitutes
being “insane or demented” and the IEC does not have a schema for categorizing
who should be denied the right to vote. Yet, the term is nonetheless applied,
and persons with mental disabilities can have their names removed from the
voter list. Neither the Ministry of Interior nor the IEC automatically removes
names from the list, but any Jordanian can report a person whose name is on the
voter list as being mentally unfit to vote.[28] This
reporting process can occur at two junctures: 1) when the Department of
Personal Issues, which initially compiles the voter list, publishes the list
and 2) when the list is transferred to the IEC, which again publishes the list before
the election is held. Once a person is reported, the case is transferred to
Jordan’s Sharia Court, which subsequently decides if a Jordanian is fit to
participate in the electoral process.[29]
These laws and procedures are
in clear violation of the CRPD. In its preamble, the CRPD defines persons with
disabilities as “those who have long-term physical,
mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various
barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an
equal basis with others.”[30]
As such, the stipulations that are outlined in the CRPD to protect persons with
disabilities’ freedom to exercise their right to vote apply to all of these persons,
not to one category less or more than any other. Moreover, the UN Committee on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee), the body that
monitors the implementation of the CRPD has declared that states must repeal
laws that exclude persons with disabilities from voting on the basis of an actual
or perceived mental disability; failure to do so, according the CRPD Committee,
constitutes disability discrimination.[31]
The ambiguous exclusion of “insane or demented” persons not
only denies some Jordanians their right to vote, but also discourages all persons with mental disabilities from
voting. Because no work is done to encourage persons with mental disabilities
to vote, many are unaware that they even possess the right to vote. Due to this
lack of awareness, moreover, families often prevent members with disabilities
from voting. The absence of awareness serves to reinforce the pervasive social
stigma that surrounds persons with mental disabilities in Jordanian society
(particularly in rural areas of the Kingdom) and exacerbates their exclusion
from all forms of social engagement.
Conclusion
Since its ratification of the
CRPD, and especially since the creation of the IEC, Jordan has made significant
progress toward protecting the rights of persons with disabilities to engage in
the Kingdom’s electoral processes. Many of the barriers to participation that
still remain are a function of wider shortcomings in the implementation of the
CRPD in Jordan. The inaccessibility of public buildings and transportation does
not just affect persons with disabilities’ opportunities to participate in
elections; it severely limits their engagement in all aspects of social,
economic, and political life.
In tandem with these
accessibility issues, is the persistence of social stigma surrounding disabilities.
While discrimination against persons with physical disabilities has slowly
declined in Jordan in recent years, persons with mental disabilities continue
to be ostracized. This ostracism is manifest in Jordan’s denying persons with
mental disabilities the freedom to
exercise their right to vote, and the widespread belief that this exclusion is
acceptable. Achieving a more
inclusive electoral process in Jordan will require not only amendments to
Jordan’s legal system so that the rights and freedoms of persons with
disabilities are better protected and accessibility is guaranteed, but also the
transformation of society’s perceptions of persons with disabilities and their
rights.
* Ezra Karmel is the Head of Research at the
Identity Center for Human Development, a Jordan-based NGO focused on political
development in the MENA region. His research focuses on electoral reform,
decentralization, social movements, and the rights of persons with
disabilities. During his past three years in Jordan, he has also worked to
monitor elections in the Kingdom and led projects to develop youth capacity to
conduct research and engage in civil society. Originally from Canada, Ezra
holds an MA in History from the University of Victoria.
[1] UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, 24 January 2007, Article (1).
<http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf>
[2] United Nations Economic and Social Council
for Western Asia (ESCWA), “Mapping
Inequity: Persons with Physical Disabilities in Jordan,” 2009.
<http://www.escwa.un.org/divisions/div_editor/Download.asp?table_name=divisions_other&field_name=ID&FileID=1194>
[3] Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Law No. 31 for the Year 2007, Law on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities.
[4] Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, National Disability Strategy, Amman, February 6, 2007.
<http://www.mindbank.info/item/551>
[5] The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Law No (25) for the Year 2012, Election Law to the House of
Representatives. <http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/mideast/JO/jordan-election-law-no-25-of-2012/view>
[6] Independent Electoral Commission, Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan, Executive Instructions No (10)
for the Year 2012, Executive Instructions Related to Polling and Counting. <http://entikhabat.jo/Documents/EI10EFINAL.pdf>
[7] Author Interview with Mohammed Hussainy, Head of
Integrity Coalition for Election Observation, Amman, September 16, 2015.
[8] IEC, “Program of Technical Accreditation for Election
Staff,” 262.
[9] Author Interview with Asia Yaghi, Director of I Am a
Human Society for Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Amman, August 17, 2015;
and Author Interview with Zuhair Sharafa, Chairman of the Equality Party
(focused on the rights of persons with disabilities), Amman, September 20,
2015.
[10] Focus group led by author and facilitated by I Am a
Human Society for Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Amman, September 6,
2015.
[11] The IEC noted that another key factor that prevented
persons with disabilities from voting was persons with disabilities apathy
toward voting. See IEC, “Program of
Technical Accreditation for Election Staff,” 263. This lack of prioritization
was reflected in the focus group, as many participants stated that they did not
believe voting would make a difference to their situations or rights.
[12] Author Interview with Ali al Batran, National Coordinator of Integrity Coalition for Election Observation, Amman,
September 10, 2015.
[13] Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), “Program of
Technical Accreditation for Election Staff: Introduction to Elections
Management,” 2013, 262.
[14] Democracy Reporting
International, “Assessment of the Electoral Framework, the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan, Final Report,” March 2013, 43.
[15] IEC, “Program of Technical Accreditation for Election
Staff,” 261-262.
[16] This shortcoming reflects a general lack of legal obligation to ensure the
environmental accessibility of public buildings in Jordan. In fact, Article 4
(E) of the Disabilities Law only requires that changes be made to ensure
accessibility “where possible”. As a result, there remains a widespread dearth
of accessible public buildings – and especially of schools, wherein the
majority of polling stations are located.
See Ezra Karmel et al., “Securing Inclusive
Education Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities: Cost Effective Steps for
Addressing Gaps Between Legislation and Implementation,” Identity Center,
Amman, Jordan, April, 2015.
[17] While the Department of Personal Issues in the Ministry of Interior was also supposed to provide persons
with disabilities with information about which stations were accessible (and
subsequently register voters for these stations), persons with disabilities who
went to the Department noted that in most cases this information was
unavailable. Several persons with disabilities in the focus group noted that
they had to tell the Department which stations were accessible. In other cases,
the Department simply registered persons with disabilities at stations that
they could not access.
[18] IEC, “Program of Technical Accreditation for Election
Staff,” 262.
[19] Author Interview with Samar Tarawneh, Head of the Procedures and
Training Department of the IEC, Amman, September 15, 2015.
[20] Jordan Department of Statistics, “Population and
Housing Census, 2004.” <http://www.dos.gov.jo/dos_home_e/main/>
[21] See Karmel, “Securing Inclusive Education
Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities,” 3.
[22] Author Interview with Nidal Bukhari, Head of the Planning and
Field Coordination Department of the IEC, Amman, September 15, 2015.
[23] Author Interview with Samar Tarawneh, Head of the Procedures and
Training Department of the IEC, Amman, September 15, 2015.
[24] Author Interview with Asia Yaghi, Director of I Am a
Human Society for Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Amman, August 17, 2015.
[25] Author Interview with Nidal Bukhari, Head of the Planning and
Field Coordination Department of the IEC, Amman, September 15, 2015.
[26] The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Law No (25) for the Year 2012, Article 3(D).
[27] Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Law No. 13 for the Year 2011, Municipalities Law, Article 15 (B). <http://www.lob.gov.jo/AR/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx>
[28] Author Interview with Nidal Bukhari, Head of the Planning and
Field Coordination Department of the IEC, Amman, September 15, 2015.
[29] Official Letter from Riad al Shk’ah, President of the
Independent Electoral Commission, to Identity Center, August 25, 2015.
[30] UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, 24 January 2007, Preamble.
[31] Communication No. 4/2011, UN CRPD Committee 2013:
paras. 9.4-9.6, quoted in Janet E. Lord and Michael Ashley Stein, “The Domestic
Incorporation of Human Rights Law and the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” College of William & Mary Law
School, Faculty Publications. Paper
665, 116. <http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/665/>
