[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Sunday released a letter [text] to Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour encouraging the strengthening of amendments proposed to the country’s 1960 penal code to better protect human rights. The articles, which are under review [HRW report] by Jordan’s Legislative and Opinion Bureau, would amend more than 180 of the code’s current articles. One of the proposed amendments would allow judges to give alternatives to prison sentences, like community service, for the first time, while others increase penalties for those who commit crimes against people with disabilities. According to HRW, the amendments fail to address certain overly vague provisions which allow the government to hand down prison sentences for the expression of an opinion of which it does not approve. Another article, the advocacy group fears, would threaten labor benefits by forbidding labor strikes by some categories of employees. Once review of the articles is complete, the articles must be passed in both houses of parliament and approved by the king in order to become law.

This is not the first time this year that concern has been expressed about Jordan’s human rights situation. In April HRW released a statement [JURIST report] denouncing as a violation of the laws of war an airstrike led by the Saudi Arabian coalition that led to the destruction of a humanitarian warehouse in Yemen. The attack said to be executed by the Saudi coalition, including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates as a response to the ousting of Former President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi’s government in January. In February a Jordanian court sentenced [JURIST report] a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood to 18 moths in prison for openly criticizing a decision by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In December the Interior Ministry of Jordan announced [JURIST report] that 11 men were executed by hangings, marking the first time Jordanian authorities delivered capital punishment in eight years.