ARDD provides legal consultation services for cases of documenting marriage and kinship to (1544) female beneficiaries under “Protection Program”

Through ARDD’s implementation of the “Enhancing Protection” project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development in Jordan, which serves the Syrian refugees and the local community in the various governorates of the Kingdom, a number of legal services have been provided most importantly assist the Syrian refugees who couldn’t manage to document their contract concluded early in the Syrian crisis in the Jordanian courts,and also those who lost their marriage documents during the war in Syria before coming to Jordan, the suffering of the Syrian refugees in the problem of proving marriage during the nine years of the crisis has been a legal challenge that has been addressed by the Arab Renaissance Organization and many official governmental and international entities, including national awareness campaigns and campaigns to exempt the fines of documenting the marriage in 2016, these fines were then paid in excess of JD 1,000 by a number of organizations to assist some refugees in documenting their marriage contracts and their children’s kinship until the issuance of the General Pardon Law of February 2019, which included the exemption of fines for documenting marriage, which was a form of a relief for these families, which are scattered by the absence of important supporting documents such as the marriage contract to guarantee the rights of spouses and children and to confirm the unity of the family and to prove the kinship of children to prevent them at future risk of being children of the category of stateless. During the period between June 2018 and the end of April 2019, ARDD provided legal consultation services for cases of documenting marriage and kinship to (1544) beneficiaries distributed as follows (Amman: 397, Irbid & North: 356, Zarqa: 94, Mafraq: 369, Karak& South: 48, Zaatari camp: 146, Azraq camp: 124). ARDD also provided the legal representation service for some cases of documenting marriage and kinship associated with several challenges and related legal complexities such as correcting the security status of beneficiaries and correcting personal information,and others related to the health, economic and social challenges of some beneficiaries, which prevents their ability to follow up the proceedings themselves in the competent court to establish the lawsuit.During the same period, (78) lawsuits of documenting marriage and kinship were established before the competent courts, which were distributed as follows (Amman: 9, Irbid & North: 28, Zarqa: 17, Mafraq: 14, Karak& South: 6), it should be noted that 6 lawsuits were successfully ended before the General Pardon Law was passed, and therefore the fine was paid (1,000) dinars for obtaining the proof of marriage document, 21 lawsuits have been successfully ended without payment of the fine by including them under the General Pardon Law, and the remaining lawsuits are still under court proceedings and will also be included under the General Pardon Law and will therefore not incur fines.But of course the legal fees associated with litigation procedures for these lawsuits are a burden on the most needy and vulnerable beneficiaries, which enhances the importance of providing legal representation services to those eligible to enable them to end the problem and obtain proof of marriage & kinship documents. This important project continues to be implemented until the end of 2020, which aims to reach the largest number of refugee families suffering from a lack of important documents, will help them to overcome this challenge and document their rights and the rights of their children in a proper legal manner so that they can move forward in their lives and protect them from any risk of exploitation or fraud.