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Ammon News - AMMAN (Petra) – A human rights group has warned that the restrains on free expression at Jordanian universities pose a "real" threat to the national political and reform process and have adverse repercussions as far as efforts to integrate the youth into political and decision-making process are concerned.

In a report on freedoms and rights at Jordanian universities released today, the Al-Hayat Center for Civil Society Development found that 68 percent of the targeted sample had evaluated the level of free speech at their universities as ranging from "weak to acceptable." The report found that security and political challenges were the "biggest hurdle" facing students defending human rights, a fact most seriously affected impact and wreaked long-term damage to a student's academic, social and economic development.

The report was aimed at enhancing participation of the youth in the Kingdom's political and democratic life, increasing the awareness of youth defending rights through legal and judicial measures and providing an atmosphere conducive for them to overcome security intervention and social restraints.

The centre's director Amer Bani Amer told a press conference that the findings needed a follow-up by decision-makers at all levels in the state to legal frameworks to facilitate the youths' real engagement in politics.

Head of the University of Jordan Students’ Union Amr Mansour said student unions were legitimate representatives and defenders of students' rights and were the bodies entrusted with finding solutions to their problems.

But curtailing this role and their freedom by the universities' administrations, he added, had kept students away from political life and prevented formation of parties at the universities, which reflected negatively on the academic institutions' image among the public.