By Ezra Karmel *
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 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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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]
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]
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.
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/>
