UJRC Research

Established in 1993, the program has been and continues to be responsive to the process of democratic transition and increasing political pluralism in Jordan. Its main objectives can be summarized as follows:

1. Familiarizing the Jordanian public with civil society organizations, their fields of specialization and their activities.
2. Tracing the current state of Jordanian civil society and the facts governing its development and characteristics.
3. Enhancing the role of civil society organizations in Jordanian public life as part of promoting a democratic culture.

   The program's main activities are organizing seminars, conferences and workshops, conducting research and publishing books and periodicals.
   The program's main publication is the series "Civil Society and Political Life in Jordan".
   Thirty reports have been published under this title. Although the center no longer publishes reports under this series title, it continues to publish studies and information on Jordanian civil society.

In light of the opening of the democratic process in Jordan in 1989, a program at UJRC specializing in democratic development and human rights studies became necessary. The program was launched in 1994 through a conference entitled "The Democratic Process in Jordan: Where to?" which resulted in the publication of the conference's proceedings. The program's main goals are:

1. Increasing public awareness of the principles of freedom, democracy and human rights and working on developing a national strategy in the fields of public freedoms and human rights.
2. Supporting human rights and civil society activists and organizations and highlighting their role in the process of democratization.
3. Activating dialogue on laws regulating public freedoms and discussion of international and regional human rights agreements between the government and civil society organizations.
4. Publishing studies and conducting training sessions for human rights activists, academics and people at all professional and social levels.
5. Providing references on human rights and democratic development in a specialized public library.
6. Cooperating with organizations with similar goals at the regional and international levels in order to establish common agendas and exchange knowledge and expertise.

1. Familiarizing the Jordanian public with civil society organizations, their fields of specialization and their activities.
2. Tracing the current state of Jordanian civil society and the facts governing its development and characteristics.
3. Enhancing the role of civil society organizations in Jordanian public life as part of promoting a democratic culture.

The Electoral and Parliamentary Studies program was launched in 1993 with the publication of several studies on Jordan’s parliamentary elections in 1989 and 1993.
This program studies parliamentary elections and different aspects of the electoral process, such as campaigning, voting and polling, both in Jordan and the Arab world. It also aims to develop techniques and methods to analyze and monitor elections in order to ensure fairness and transparency and to increase public awareness of the importance of electoral participation. The program devotes special attention to the impact of electoral systems on democracy, in particular on political parties and minority representation.

Starting in mid-1997, the Peace Studies Program has been monitoring the progress of the peace process between Jordan and Israel. The program provides a wide range of information on the peace process, including the original texts of agreements, treaties and protocols, in addition to collecting books and studies that analyse the effects and prospects of the peace process in Jordan.

The program also prepares reports in Arabic and English covering the consequences of the peace process, related political and economic developments and the regional tension created by the normalisation issue and its effects on the peace process.

The Peace Studies Program plans to prepare a chronology covering peace developments starting from the signing of the peace treaty in Wadi Araba in October 1994.

   Early in 1997, UJRC launched a new program devoted to studying Jordan's social history. Through this program, UJRC hopes to fill the gap resulting from the dearth of studies about the social history of Jordan compared to the relatively abundant publications about Jordan’s political history.

   The program seeks to uncover the origins and history of social and political movements in Jordan, as well as the history of civil and educational institutions. The social history of Jordanian cities and the histories of ethnic and cultural groups in Jordan are also focal issues in the program.

   The program encourages the study of public figures who have played important roles in creating and shaping Jordanian society. Finally, this program seeks to understand the impact of the phases of Jordan's social history on the Middle East.

   Jordan as a semi arid land is one of the most affected countries in the Middle East with water shortage problems. Main factors are the already limited water resources, the increasing demand caused by population growth, industrial and agricultural expansion and the modernization of living standards. Moreover, the political instability in the area prevents the development and integration of regional water management projects. In addition, the exploitation of the limited water resources has been leading to severe environmental damages.
   The Country is entering the new millennium with acceleration in the rate at which it undertakes developmental activities. Yet, as in any developing country these developmental activities often have negative effects on the environment.

   Given the importance of the above mentioned issues to Jordan's environmental agenda, Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Center has expanded its scope of research to address the problems of water and environment in Jordan.
   Based on its experience as a research center, UJRC approaches studies of water and environment from socio-economic, political and scientific perspectives. UJRC believes this holistic approach is most suitable for environmental policy formation and monitoring in light of the ever-changing trends in approaches to environmental problems. Through this approach, the Center seeks to encourage the spread of social values and achieving sustainable development with an emphasis on human welfare and safeguarding environmental resources for coming generations. Accordingly, the Center's main goals in this field of study can be summarized as follows:

1. To work as an independent and effective instrument to track all activities, policies and practices affecting the environment.
2. To monitor and report on environmental violations.
3. To function as environmental pressure group that lobbies for legislation in this field.
4. To collect and analyze laws related to the environment.
5. To set standards and guidelines for water and environmental resources management.
6. To carry out public awareness campaigns and training courses on friendly environmental behavior.
7. To build an environmental watch web page and an online discussion group as a tool for public education and environmental information exchange.
8. To contribute to establishing a network of all Jordanian entities, both governmental and non-governmental, working in the field of water and environment in order to enhance coordination and cooperation and eventually upgrade efforts in addressing problems and challenges in this field.