Human Rights Watch to open Jordan regional office

AMMAN — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that it will open a regional office in Amman in February 2023 in a move to intensify its advocacy on key human rights issues across the Middle East and North Africa. 

HRW has operated a separate Jordan country office in Amman since 2014. Jordan’s Ministry of Industry and Trade approved HRW’s request to establish the regional office in October 2022.

“While most governments across the Middle East and North Africa are increasingly suppressing dissent and stymying the human rights movement, Jordan has taken a positive step for more human rights engagement in the broader region,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW, in a statement.

Human Rights Watch is a nonprofit, nongovernmental human rights organisation with close to 600 staff members working around the globe. 

The staff consists of human rights professionals including country experts, lawyers, journalists and academics of diverse backgrounds and over 80 nationalities. 

In addition to the regional office in Jordan, Human Rights Watch also has offices for the Middle East and North Africa region in Tunisia and Lebanon.

Established in 1978, HRW is known for its “accurate fact-finding and impartial reporting to highlight human rights abuses, and targeted advocacy to bring them to an end”, the statement said. It works in close partnership with local human rights groups worldwide.