Since 2022, Jordan’s civic space has been categorised by the CIVICUS Monitor as ‘repressed’. Jordan’s shrinking of civic space in 2024 is largely due to the escalation of crackdowns by authorities, as well as the increase in legislation that facilitates them. These add to longstanding bureaucratic and regulatory restrictions on forming associations, receiving foreign funding, and coping with the constraints of donor dependence.

In 2024, Jordanian authorities infringed on freedoms of expression, assembly, and association, mostly through clamping down on pro-Palestine protests and political advocacy. This included large-scale arrests and detentions. By exercising the wide-ranging scope of criminal offences granted by the 2023 cybercrime bill, security forces were able to target activists and journalists based on their online expression, especially those that critiqued Jordan’s policies towards Israel. Despite accepting a OHCHR recommendation in January 2024 to reconsider the bill, Jordan’s government and Parliament have made no discernible progress on the matter.

2024 also saw legal consolidation of funding restrictions on Jordan’s civil society organisations (CSOs) at the same time as a global cooling of development aid, including from the United States, Jordan’s largest donor. These two events place the financial position of Jordan’s civil society in great jeopardy.