Razan Zuayter, Chairperson of the Board of APN, responded to the invitation of the HEMAM Forum held on May 9, 2022, under the theme Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, and participated in the discussion sessions. Among the attendees was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé, along with the Senior Human Rights Advisor to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan, Ms. Christina Meinecke, as well as civil society organizations, diplomatic missions, international institutions, media representatives and human rights defenders.

The discussion sessions were mainly dealt with the challenges and opportunities for peaceful assembly, freedom of association between law and practice, as well as Jordan's position regarding the international standards that govern the right to peaceful assembly and associations, and international best practices.

Zuayter pointed out the importance of having a free and real civil society that does not acquiesce to the conditions of the financiers, and that it makes no sense to criticize government agencies only for their interference in the work of associations, especially since conditional funding is one of the reasons for dependence, and beyond that, sectarian wars and unrest in our Arab region.

Zuayter pointed to APN’s refusal of many opportunities for financing that could jeopardize APN’s independence and stressed that serious and real work requires perseverance and steadfastness to succeed, and that the credibility of APN has worked to form important partnerships, noting that APN would soon host the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and law professor at the University of Oregon, Dr. Michael Fakhri. He will be speaking on the topic of food sovereignty.

In the item of recommendations, Zuayter recommended, on behalf of APN, for civil society to self-monitoring against conditional foreign funding which directs non-nationalist programs, while expressing the hope that this recommendation would be embedded in the final recommendations.