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.

UAE: Unfair trial, unjust sentences – human rights defenders, political dissidents unjustly convicted

With a group of five human rights organisations, MENA Rights Group condemn the unjust conviction of at least 44 defendants in the “UAE87” mass trial.

Citizenship stripping in the United Arab Emirates: Statelessness as a tool of crackdown

In this briefing note, MENA Rights Group sheds light on the UAE’s practice of citizenship stripping, i.e. nationality revocation, to silence dissidents. This practice is a flagrant violation of human rights and the UAE’s international obligations, as well as its own domestic legislation.

Fifty years since establishment, UAE State Security Apparatus should end widespread abuses of Emiratis’ fundamental rights

On the 50th anniversary of the UAE’s State Security Apparatus (SSA)’s establishment, MENA Rights Group, the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center and Human Rights Watch call on Emirati authorities to immediately halt the SSA’s gross human rights violations.

The detrimental impact of administrative counter-terrorism measures on human rights in the MENA

This briefing paper analyses how MENA states impose counter-terrorism related administrative measures, including their legal framework and the entities responsible for imposing them, and examines the impact of these measures on human rights in MENA countries through case studies of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Algeria, Israel/Palestine, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Jordanian activist Ahmed al-Atoum’s mother dies while he serves his 10-year prison sentence in the UAE for Facebook posts

MENA Rights Group leads a coalition of human rights organisations in calling on UAE authorities to immediately release arbitrarily detained Jordanian activist Ahmed al-Atoum after his mother’s sudden passing. While al-Atoum is serving a 10-year sentence for Facebook posts criticising Jordanian authorities, he did not get a chance to say goodbye to his mother, nor […]

Emirates Humanitarian City: a refugee prison complex?

MENA Rights Group expresses deep concern over reported human rights violations against Afghan refugees who have been stuck in the “Emirates Humanitarian City” since August 2021.

Afghan national detained in Emirates Humanitarian City since Fall 2021

Nour Tahiri (whose name has been changed), an Afghan national, is currently being held at Emirates Humanitarian City (EHC) along with their spouse and children. After the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, the Taliban made multiple threats against Tahiri and their family and searched their home several times. Tahiri’s partner apparently received conditional approval for advanced humanitarian parole […]

UAE’s second-largest political mass trial is underway

While December 2023 saw the global spotlight on Dubai for the COP28, Abu Dhabi discreetly conducted the second-largest political mass trial in the UAE’s history, known as the “UAE87” in a complete absence of media coverage.

Yemeni student detained and disappeared in the UAE

Hailan was a student at the Dubai Police College and a student in Sharia and Law, where he studied for ten years. He was supposed to graduate in 2020, only a few months after his arrest. On September 23, 2019, he was arrested at Mezyad Border Post in Abu Dhabi as he was returning from Yemen […]

Exiled Emirati activist sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia now faces the inclusion of his companies on the terrorist list

In March 2011, 132 activists, some of them members of the Da’wat al-Islah association (al-Islah), signed a petition calling for increased political participation and constitutional reforms in the UAE. In reprisal for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association, members of al-Islah and other activists were arrested during various waves of arrests, starting in March of […]