AMMAN, 17 February 2004 — A three-day workshop to promote the role of women in the Middle East legal profession opened here yesterday, amid calls by its US and Jordanian co-hosts to bridge the inequality gap between men and women.

“Women and the Law: A Regional Dialogue Supporting Voices of Change” brings together dozens of women from the legal profession and female activist groups from 15 Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority, the United States and Europe.

Speakers will include Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Jordanian Justice Minister Salah Bashir; Judge Judith Chirlin of the Los Angeles County Superior Court; and Judge Elisabet Fura-Sandstrom of the European Court of Human Rights, organizers said.

“The proper legal framework is the cornerstone of the quest to create a just society... in which all citizens, men, women and children, can reach their full potential,” US Ambassador to Jordan Edward Gnehm, said in an opening address.

Bashir meanwhile insisted in his speech that “justice and equality cannot be achieved in the shadow of legislation that is implemented on men and women, at a time when only half of the society (men) issue them”. He called for “the active, and not only symbolic, participation of women in issuing legislation and implementing it.”

A statement by the US Embassy said the forum will examine four key themes: women in the judiciary; regional justice development practices; human rights and equality and professional development and skills training.

The session devoted to human rights and equality will focus on issues dictating the status of Arab women such as marriage, divorce, guardianship, inheritance, labor and employment.

There are 19 serving judges and 1,050 practicing female lawyers for around 6,000 male practicing lawyers in Jordan, which has made slow but steady strides to improve the status of women since King Abdallah II ascended the throne in February 1999.

Last year he issued a decree giving six women seats in the 110-member lower house of Parliament which was elected in June. In November he appointed seven female senators to the 55-member upper house.

Jordan’s new 21-member government line-up announced in October includes three women. Past governments had only one female Cabinet minister.

Jordanian woman were also granted the right to divorce in December 2001 when the king approved an amendment to the law.

The forum is organized by the US Middle East Partnership Initiative which is aimed at developing policies and programs that support reform in the region.

It is a follow-up to an “Arab Judicial Forum” jointly organized by the United States and Bahrain in September in Manama that discussed the role of courts in protecting human rights and cooperation between judicial systems.