HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN Official name: Al-Mamlakah al-Urduniyah al-Hashimiyah (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) Location: West Asia International organisations:The Arab League, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: Iraq, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria Coastline: Gulf of Aqaba Land area: 92,300 Km2 Population: 5,300,000

Ethnicity: Almost the entire population is of Arab stock. There are small minorities of Circassians and Armenians.
Languages: Arabic is the official language and is univerally used.
Religion: Sunni Moslem 92%, Christian of various denominations 6%
Form of government: Semi-constitutional monarchy. Jordan is divided into twelve governorates.

Capital: Amman Constitution: The Constitution of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan came into effect on 8 January 1952. Head of state: King Abdullah II succeeded to the throne on 7 February 1999. Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the King. The Prime Minister is in theory accountable to the legislature but in practice is accountable to the King. Legislature: Jordan has a bicameral legislature, the National Assembly (Majlis al-Umma). The House of Deputies (Majlis al-Nuwaab) has 110 members, elected for four-year terms from single-member constituencies. Six seats are reserved for women. The Senate (Majlis al-Aayan) has 40 members appointed by the King. Electoral authority: The Ministry of the Interior administers national elections, but electoral information appears at the Jordan Elections website. Freedom House rating: Political Rights 6, Civil Liberties 5

Political history

The territory which is now Jordan was part of the Ottoman province of Syria before the First World War. It had never been a separate political unit and its people considered themselves to be Syrian or Palestinian Arabs. During the war the British and French promised independence to the Arab subjects of the Ottomans if they supported the Allies, and in 1920 an Arab kingdom was proclaimed in Damascus, headed by the al-Hashemi or Hashemite family. The Hashemites were hereditary Sharifs of Mecca and had led the Arab revolt against the Ottomans. The French refused to allow this arrangement, and the British compensated the Hashemites by installing them as rulers of Iraq and the eastern half of Palestine.

This region became a British mandated territory known as the Emirate of Transjordan under Abdullah al-Hashemi in 1921. It became the Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946 when the British mandate ended and the Kingdom of Jordan in 1949. In 1949 Jordan annexed the parts of Palestine on the West Bank of the Jordan not occupied by Israel. In 1958 Jordan entered a federation with Iraq, but this ended with the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy a few months later. In 1967 Jordan's territory on the West Bank was seized by Israel. Jordan renounced its claim to the West Bank in 1988. In 1994 Jordan recognised Israel and signed a peace treaty.

Abdullah's son Hussein became King in 1952, and under his moderate rule Jordan became a relatively liberal and well-governed state, with a Constitution providing for parliamentary government, but in practice Hussein ran the country and no serious opposition was permitted. The inflamation of the Palestinian issue threatened to destabilise a country with no real national identity and where the majority of the population are of Palestinian origin. Hussein died in 1999 and his son Abdullah II has inherited these problems.

Political parties were legalised in 1992, and Jordan now has a number of parties, including the Arab Socialist Rebirth Party, the National Constitutional Party, the Moslem Brotherhood and the Islamic Action Front, but the 1997 election returned only three party candidates. Elections generally accepted as free and fair were held in June 2003, but the legislature has little real power, and is dominated by "independent" members who support the government. Given the weakness of the party system and the continuing domination of the King over political life, Jordan cannot be considered a genuine democracy.

Amnesty International's 2002 Report on Jordan noted that: "Hundreds of people, including prisoners of conscience, were arrested for political reasons. There were reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by members of the security services. Trials of most of those charged with political offences continued to be heard before the State Security Court whose procedures did not meet international fair trial standards."