Country: United Arab Emirates

While the United Arab Emirates markets itself as a progressive economic safe-haven and cultural hub in the region, with offshoots of New York and Sorbonne University, as well as the Louvre museum, the human rights reality on the ground stands at stark contrast.

Freedom of opinion and expression is severely limited by a restrictive legal framework, including the Cybercrime Law, the Law on Combating Terrorist Crimes and the Penal Code, making critical civil society space non-existent. Human rights defenders and peaceful dissidents face harsh reprisals for their activism, often in the form of arbitrary detention. Torture is systematically practised to obtain confessions that are later used as the sole evidence at trial to sentence individuals to long prison terms.

Regionally, the UAE adopts an interventionist approach within the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, where it consolidated its control over large areas in the south of the country, controlling the seaport, airport, military checkpoints and some official as well as unofficial detention centres.

United Arab Emirates: Crackdown on peaceful dissent through terrorism listing

In this analysis, MENA Rights Group exposes the recent and ongoing measures taken by Emirati authorities to stifle peaceful dissent by arbitrarily designating human rights defenders, political dissidents, and their relatives or affiliated companies as “terrorists”.

The “UAE84” case: renewed prosecution of Emirati human rights defenders and critics

In 2024-2025, UAE authorities subjected a group of human rights defenders and critics to a second round of prosecution — the UAE84 re-trials — in flagrant violation of fair trial guarantees and despite repeated condemnation from UN human rights experts. Most of the defendants had already been convicted in the UAE94 mass trial in 2013.

The UAE’s dangerous Extremism Law

Abstract Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), vague and overbroad definitions of “terrorism”, “terrorist organisation” and “violent extremism” have enabled states to systematically criminalise peaceful dissent, silence human rights defenders, and restrict civic space. The absence of precise, rights-compliant definitions creates wide room for abuse, allowing authorities to prosecute forms of expression, association, […]

Enforced disappearances in the context of transnational repression in the MENA

1 Introduction 1.1 Transnational repression in the MENA According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), transnational repression refers to “acts conducted or directed by a State, or its proxy, to deter, silence or punish dissent, criticism or human rights advocacy towards it, expressed from outside its territory.”[1] These acts often […]

Lebanon: Year Since Poet Unlawfully Extradited to UAE

Al-Qaradawi Arbitrarily Detained in Near-Incommunicado Conditions

One year since the arrest of Abdulrahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi: a year of complicity, enforced disappearance, and diplomatic failure

On the first anniversary of his arrest, 17 human rights organisations condemn the arrest and extradition of Egyptian–Turkish poet and dissident Abdulrahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, describing it as an unlawful act of transnational repression.

UN Secretary-General’s 2025 report highlights reprisals against human rights defenders in the MENA

MENA Rights Group provides a summary of the UNSG’s main concerns over reprisals against human rights defenders in the MENA region, particularly in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen.

UN Working Group finds UAE and U.S. responsible for the arbitrary detention of Afghan refugees in Emirates Humanitarian City

MENA Rights Group welcomes findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention holding the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates jointly responsible for the detention of Afghan refugees in the Emirates Humanitarian City.

200 days of Abdulrahman Yusuf’s enforced disappearance: Reveal his whereabouts. Ensure His Safety. Release Him Now.

The undersigned organizations are extremely concerned over the continued enforced disappearance of Turkish-Egyptian poet and political dissident Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi for more than 200 days. Abdulrahman Yusuf was arrested in Lebanon on 28 December 2024 and forcibly extradited to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 8 January 2025, in flagrant violation of due process guarantees […]

The influence of MENA states in the UN counter-terrorism architecture

Setting global security policies while silencing dissent