GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER LAW ON ASSOCIATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002633 SIPDIS NEA FOR A/S WELCH, DRL FOR A/S KRAMER E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/09/2018 TAGS: PGOV KDEM JO SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER LAW ON ASSOCIATIONS REF: A. AMMAN 2359 ¶B. AMMAN 2300 ¶C. AMMAN 2062 ¶D. AMMAN 1465 AMMAN 00002633 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Jordan's government announced on September 8 its intention to revisit the controversial Law on Associations (Refs A-D). PM Dahabi convened civil society leaders to manage expectations and chart a way forward. Initial indications are that civil society remains split on how far to push the government. Royal Court Chief Bassem Awadallah and Minister of Social Development Hala Lattouf confirmed to Post that the government is planning to introduce amendments to the law in the upcoming session of parliament which will likely start in October. End Summary. An Opening -------------- ¶2. (U) On September 8, Prime Minister Nader Dahabi and Minister of Social Development Hala Lattouf met with civil society leaders about the controversial Law on Associations. Dahabi announced at the meeting that the government was considering amendments to the law or even a complete overhaul, and solicited further civil society input for those changes. The attendees at the meeting were those who signed a petition to the King in July, shortly after the bill's approval by parliament, urging a veto. ¶3. (SBU) Details about the impetus for and substance of the meeting are trickling out in the media and through the rumor mill. Mohammed Momani, a policy advisor with SUNY's Legislative Strengthening Program, told POLOFF on September 10 that King Abdullah saw cascading criticisms of the law and instructed the PM to "contain the story." In a September 10 news analysis piece in moderate daily Al-Ghad, Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Center head and prominent activist Hani Hourani outlined Dahabi's charge to the gathered NGO leaders. He portrayed Dahabi as opening the door to changes in the law, but at the same time managing expectations about how far the government was prepared to go. Dahabi reportedly told the group that civil society "should not let its ceiling of expectations get too high." ¶4. (C) Per Hourani's article, Dahabi categorically ruled out a royal veto of the law, saying that it would set a negative precedent. Note: King Abdullah has not vetoed any legislation since his ascension in 1999. End Note. He also told the civil society leaders that he was less concerned about feedback from international groups, but was interested in the feedback he had received from Jordanian NGOs. Comment: Dahabi's determination to portray the government's re-opening of the issue as internally driven is at least in part a nod to the public Human Rights Watch criticism of the law, which caused many of our parliamentary contacts to bristle (Ref C). End comment. ¶5. (C) Sa'id Karajah, a lawyer and USAID contractor who was at the meeting, told AID staff that the PM set September 18 as a deadline for civil society to present him with a memo recommending concrete changes in the law. Minister of Social Development Hala Lattouf will host a forum on September 10 designed to solicit a unified set of suggestions from civil society. Comment: Lattouf has shared with Post some of her own ideas as to how to mitigate the most restrictive elements of the law (Ref A); it is a safe assumption that she will seek to use this process as a vehicle to move those forward. End comment. ¶6. (SBU) According to Hourani's article, civil society remains split on how to move forward (Ref D). One group sees the meeting as an opening for civil society to build trust with the government and show that it can meet the authorities halfway. Others, arguing that the government is negotiating from a position of weakness, are pushing for a renewed call for a royal veto, in the hope that concern for Jordan's image will force the government to make further concessions. The Mechanics of Amendment -------------- ¶7. (C) Royal Court Chief Bassem Awadallah and Minister of Social Development Lattouf confirmed that the government is planning to introduce amendments to the law in the upcoming session of parliament which will likely start in October. PM Dahabi had suggested earlier that the government was planning to withdraw the bill from the King's desk, but the AMMAN 00002633 002.2 OF 002 questionable constitutionality of such a move made it essentially impossible. The King is expected to sign the bill in the coming days, which would then pave the way for the introduction of amendments during the thirty-day window between his approval and the law's entrance into force. Momani characterized parliament as "in a reactive mode, not a proactive mode," and predicted that once the government got behind a set of amendments, MPs would likely follow. Beecroft