13th Quarterly Report: Jordan Rule of Law Program

The program's work plan, awaiting approval from USAID, will build on previous accomplishments and make a meaningful contribution to Jordan's reform efforts. The Judicial Council (JC) received significant support from the program, including assistance in developing periodical publications, enhancing the JC website, and organizing workshops. Workshops held during this quarter focused on strategic planning, ethical conduct, and courtroom procedures, as well as judicial authority law and judicial independence. Objective 1 of the program aimed to enhance judicial performance and reduce delays, as well as increase public confidence. The program continued to support the Cassation Court Technical Office (TO) by providing logistical support and ensuring the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) provides adequate staffing. All TO judges and researchers are now using AL QUSTAS, a comprehensive Jordanian/Arab legal database provided by the program. The TO's research plays a crucial role in advancing Jordanian jurisprudence, ensuring unified judgments, and maintaining the highest standards of quality. The program also closed out all facets of the computerization component, including software deliverables, court transition support, development cycle, and inventory. MIZAN V2 was launched at 53 locations throughout the Kingdom, and the program is awaiting USAID's approval of the project work plan to sign a new contract with Optimiza for necessary MIZAN enhancements. The program also provided training to MOJ IT staff on testing procedures for MIZAN V2, rollout procedures, and checklists. Additionally, specific training on advanced IT topics related to data center technology was completed for five MOJ IT Department staff who will manage the daily operations of the data center and provide disaster recovery. Disaster recovery is a critical component of business continuity, ensuring the protection of data and technology infrastructure in the event of a natural or human-induced disaster. The program also facilitated knowledge transfer from ROLP to MOJ staff, enabling MOJ IT staff to support MOJ IT and its applications infrastructure on a sustainable basis. The MOJ is now responsible for the complete rollout of the Civil Execution application, with ROLP providing future support as needed. The program also developed admin screens to alleviate user mistakes, and an Optional Task Order was signed with the vendor to enhance the application. The File Tracking System (FTS) was developed to specify the precise location of physical case files, and the system began its pilot stage in the North Amman Court. The program also finished the integration with the Land Department and Notary Public, ensuring the integrity of land transactions and providing efficient verification that land belongs to rightful owners. The application has been working in all courts of the Kingdom without issue since July. The Judges' Affairs System (JAUA) Application was developed at the request of the MOJ, adding two functionalities for the Judge's Affairs Unit at the JC to track and record administrative data for all judges, as well as their training courses and workshops. The application will be implemented at the JC and will provide great help to the Administrative Units.