General Information: The National Center for Human Rights in Jordan hereby presents to your esteemed Committee its first shadow report in response to the list of issues in relation to the fifth periodic report of Jordan adopted by the Committee at its 119th Session. The Report is submitted by virtue of the legal powers granted to the Center under its Law No (51) for the year 2006, as amended, which vested it with the competence to monitor, protect, and verify respect for human rights in the Kingdom, to address any abuses or violations thereof, and follow up the adoption of the necessary measures to this end, including their settlement or referral to the competent Executive, Legislative or the Judicial authority to halt them and eliminate their effects, as well as to ensure the dissemination of the culture of human rights, monitor its situation, and provide legal advice or aid to people who could otherwise not afford it. The Center observed a significant change, over the past five years, in the public authorities’ perceptions of human rights and the way they address these issues, as demonstrated by the numerous positive steps taken by the Government within the framework of the protection and promotion of human rights, where the period between 2013 and 2017 witnessed receptiveness to the NCHR recommendations. The Center in its 19th Annual Report of 2011 had explicitly highlighted that the government does not give proper attention to its recommendations contained in its pervious periodic reports issued over the past nine years. After that Report had been submitted to His Majesty the King, the Prime Minister, and the Presidents of the tow Champers of Parliament, and heightening the government's disregard of the NCHR recommendations, then the years 2013-2015 witnessed responding to the NCHR recommendations issued in the years 2012-2014. One of the most prominent steps in this direction, and which rectified the situation, was that the Monarch directed the Prime Minister and the Head of the Judicial Council, at the time, “to examine the Center's recommendations and implement them”. Accordingly, the government complied with this royal directive. The most salient manifestation of this compliance was the development of a national human rights action plan, where the government established a committee for this purpose, entrusted with the task of elaborating a comprehensive national human rights action plan. In this connection, it is recalled that the Center had the most prominent role in the preparation of the Plan, including through holding the initial consultations with the stakeholders. Even though the Plan was after all issued as a governmental document, one of the most stressed in that Plan is the need to bring national legislation into line with international conventions and treaties, and to reveal the gaps or shortcomings in the national legislation pertaining to the fundamental rights and freedoms, compared to what is enshrined in the international standards. The Implementation Plan to Disseminate a Human Rights Culture was also adopted in 2014. Furthermore, the creation of the Government Coordinator for Human Rights at the Prime Ministry in 2014 constitutes another instance of the government's positive attitude towards the Center's recommendations and human rights issues in general. This step has contributed to the follow up of the Center's recommendations, through the involvement 2