Cabinet approves bill to regulate tribal dispute resolutions

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Sunday endorsed the validating reasons for the 2016 draft crime prevention law to be sent to the Legislation and Opinion Bureau for review.

Under the law, which aims at protecting lives, public and private properties, tribal disputes are restricted to murder, sexual assaults and cases related to dishonoring mediators in tribal disputes, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The law also aims to regulate the tribal traditions applied to resolve disputes among clans, including the jalwa (forced relocation of the tribe of the murderer to avoid violent reprisals), truce and blood money, with the aim of preventing such practices to go off-limit, Petra reported.

For example, the value of blood money and other forms of financial compensation to victims or their families, will no longer be decided by the delegates representing the two sides of the disputes, but by religious authorities, particularly the Chief Islamic Justice Department.

As listed among the validating reasons, the law also aims at serving as a legal framework to deal with the consequences of tribal traditions and to make sure that any long-established procedures applied in resolving disputes are solely centred around achieving harmony and social peace, Petra said.