i i exactly were the rules of the religious law applied by the Sharinh courts; and They also whether corporal punishment stipulated by the law was applied. requested further details about the conduct of the 1989 elections and asked whether there had been any specific cases in which the Covenant’s provisions had in fact been applied by the Jordanian courts. 572. The representative of the State party, replying to the guestions raised, explained that international conventions took precedence over national legislation except when the regime was threatened, such as, for example, in the case of a state of emergency or when an exceptional danger jeopardised the That restriction did not apply in the case of natural nation’s future. At the present time, there was no COUrt in Jordan with the power disasters. to rule on the constitutionality of a law, but it had been decided to esteblish a constitutional court. No difficulty had been enaountered in domestic application of the Covenant; factors which had hindered the instrument’s implementation had been beyond Jordan’s control and related The recent conflict essentially to the region’s political instability. concerning Kuwait had likewise given rise to difficulties in that regard. 573. With regard to the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, the representative said that the action had been determined by the oountry’s historical evolution, including the fact that in 1967 the West Bank, which formed part of the Kingdom, had been occupied. Following that event, the Chamber of Deputies had been dissolved. The restoration of the normal constitutional situation had enabled full general elections to be organixed in 1909. The representative assured the Committee that the elections were conducted in an atmosphere of freedom, democracy and openness, in conformity with the law in force. The Chamber of Deputies had enacted, early in 1991, a law repealing the 1953 Act, which forbade the establishment of a Communist party in Jordan: henceforth all political parties could be freely set up in Jordan. The 1939 Defence Act concerned exceptional circumstances and cases1 it was applied not throughout Jordanian territory but to clearly demarcated zones. a mark of Jordan’s will to progress further The National Charter, towards democracy, had been adopted in June 1991 by representatives of al.1 sectors of the population meeting in a National Congress; it took precedence over the Constitution, to the point that it even evoked the need to amend the latter. The National Charter enunciated all the principles of Jordan’s national life, which were founded on full respect for human rights, freedom of expression and the free participation of citizens in the democratic conduct of public affairs. 574, The representative said that, during the Gulf war, confronted with a tragic situation following the influx hundreds of thousands of refugees, whom the country had with medical care and material assistance as far as its During that time, in such a situation of crisis, it was had departed from one or two of the Covenant’s provisions Jordan had been into its territory of striven to provide means permitted, possible that Jordan in some areas. 575. Referring to the implementation of unwritten laws end to customs such as tribal vengeance, the representative affirmed that the latter custom had ceased, but that it would take a few years to achieve the level of education reguired to guarantee the primacy of written law, The Ministry of the Interior was endeavouring to restrict undesirable practices. The National Charter also recognized that problem and referred to the need to make legul Brovisions more specific and to abandon tribal customs. -141-