31Jul, 2023
    UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders expresses concern over al-Mansoori’s continued detention

    UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor expressed concern over the continued arrest of the human rights defender Mohamed al-Mansoori in UAE jails.

    Appalled that Mohamed al-Mansoori remains imprisoned after his sentence ended July 16 on a conviction related to his human rights work, she wrote in a tweet.

    The expert also called for his immediate release.

    Al-Mansouri, the former head of the UAE Jurists Association, was arrested on 16 July 2012 after signing a petition calling for democratic reforms. He was subsequently tried alongside 93 other lawyers, activists and academics known collectively as the UAE 94. 

    The main evidence used against Al-Mansouri was a “confession” obtained through torture. Consequently, he was sentenced to 11 years and three months for “plotting to overthrow the government”.

    27Jul, 2023
    EDAC reveals serious human rights violations in Emirati jails 

    During a side event organized by the United Nations (UN) in Bonn, Germany, during the preparatory conference for the “COP 28” climate summit, Hamad Alshamsi, the executive director of the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC) revealed the serious human rights violations against dozens of political prisoners in Emirati jails.

    Alshamsi stated that dozens of Detainees of conscience in the UAE are still being held despite the end of their judicial sentences.

     Alshamsi emphasized that civic space in the UAE is virtually nonexistent. People cannot speak freely or criticize the UAE government or even other governments, especially those considered friendly to the UAE government.

    Alshamsi cited the case of Emirati academic Nasser bin Ghaith, who was arrested by the UAE government for criticizing the Egyptian regime and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In similar cases, Jordanian activist Ahmed Alattoum was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for criticizing the Jordanian government.

    He pointed out that torture in the UAE has become systematic and is an integral part of the legal system. All detainees of conscience go through the same procedures, starting with solitary confinement in prisons managed by the state security apparatus (SSA).

    Alshamsi explained that the State Security Apparatus Law allows authorities to detain individuals for up to 90 days without judicial authorization or presenting them to public prosecution. This period can be extended by the state security apparatus without informing the public prosecution.

    During this period, which may last for months, detainees are held in state security prisons and subjected to various forms of torture, including prolonged solitary confinement. However, the UAE authorities do not consider such practices as torture.

    Cases of physical assault, sleep deprivation through constant light exposure, exposure to cold temperatures, and other forms of torture during interrogations have been documented, indicating that these are not isolated incidents but rather part of a systematic practice.

    Alshamsi also mentioned the UAE authorities’ use of “collective punishment” against the families of detainees. Families may face travel bans, and in extreme cases, the revocation of citizenship and the deprivation of their rights.

    The ease with which UAE citizenship is revoked from detainees’ families gives the impression that it is easier than dismissing employees from their jobs. For instance, the UAE government revoked citizenship from the family of Emirati detainee Abdulsalam Almarzooqi through a phone call.

    Alshamsi concluded his speech by calling for the opening of civic space in the UAE, the release of all detainees of conscience, the amendment of laws, and an end to human rights violations.

    20Jul, 2023
    60 detainees still detained in UAE jails behind their release date

    60 prisoners of conscience, sentenced for exercising their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly, are currently subject to indefinite detention within UAE jails.

    The Emirati government continue to keep the 60 prisoners in the so-called “Munasaha centres” beyond their release dates, including 55 members of the UAE94 group.

    Indefinite detention is the incarceration of prisoners beyond their release date, without trial or due process. 

    At the end of their sentences, these prisoners were transferred to so-called “Munasaha centres” or “counselling centres”, which are situated within the prison facility, and arbitrarily held through a court order or an administrative decision.

     Under the UAE’s counterterrorism law, the centres are aimed at “enlightenment and reform” of prisoners who are deemed to pose a terrorist threat.

    The continued detention of inmates beyond their sentence breaches both international human rights law and the UAE’s own laws regarding fair trials and due process. 

    17Jul, 2023
    11th Anniversary of Mohammed Al-Roken’s Imprisonment 

    17 July 2021 marks 11 years since the detention of Mohammed Al-Roken, a prominent Emirati lawyer and human rights defender.

     Al-Roken remains in al-Razeen prison, Abu Dhabi where he already spent his ten-year sentence. However, he is still held behind his release date.

    Prior to his arrest, Mohammed Al-Roken regularly provided legal assistance to detained activists who defended human rights and fundamental freedoms. 

    On 17 July 2012, the UAE authorities arrested Al-Roken while he was travelling to a police station to report the disappearance of his son and son-in-law. He was subjected to enforced disappearance in an undisclosed location for the first three months after his arrest. 

    On 2 July 2013, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment with three additional years of probation. 

    While imprisoned, Al-Roken has complained to his lawyers of being subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture.

    Although Mohammed Al-Roken had spent his prison term, he did not restore his freedom as part of the UAE’s indefinite detention policy, which was systematically used to suppress the voices of those brave enough to speak out against injustice. 

    The Emirati government keeps at least 60 prisoners beyond their release dates, including 55 members of the UAE 94.

    15Jul, 2023
    Mohamed al-Mansoori should be released in few days

    On July 16. 2023, it will be ten years since Mohamed Al-Mansoori, a respected human rights lawyer, was arrested by UAE security forces to ten years in jails following a mass trial, known as UAE94.

    Al-Mansouri, the former head of the UAE Jurists Association, was arrested on 16 July 2012 after signing a petition calling for democratic reforms. He was subsequently tried alongside 93 other lawyers, activists and academics known collectively as the UAE 94. 

    The UN special procedures condemned the trial as grossly unfair.

     The main evidence used against Al-Mansouri was a “confession” obtained through torture. Consequently, he was sentenced to 11 years and three months for “plotting to overthrow the government”.

    As his 10-year-sentence is due to end, we call on the UAE authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mohamed Al-Mansoori on his scheduled release date without delay under flimsy pretexts.

    13Jul, 2023
    Human rights lawyer asks: Why is the UAE hosting COP28?

    “Detention in horrific conditions, torture, deportation [and a] criminal conviction.” These are the risks climate activists could face if they protest at COP28, the international climate conference to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates in December, says human rights lawyer Ben Keith. 

    Keith, who qualified as a UK barrister in 2004, focuses on a “mixture of extradition, immigration and international law”. He specialises in Red Notices—the system used by Interpol to alert police worldwide that a member country is seeking to locate, arrest and possibly extradite a particular person—and the UAE’s use of this system. (The current Interpol president is Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, a UAE official who, Keith says, has “a number of cases against him, including the torture of a number of British individuals”.)

    Keith’s clients include UK businessman Ryan Cornelius, who is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in the UAE. Last June, a UN working group ruled that Cornelius had been held arbitrarily since being arrested at Dubai airport in 2008. The group also condemned fundamental rights violations by the UAE authorities against Cornelius.

    The problem, Keith argues, is not so much that COP28 is being held in the UAE in the first place, but rather the rest of the world’s lethargy towards the country. “The United Arab Emirates is not a state that respects the rule of law or international human rights,” he tells me, accusing the country of “frequent use” of “torture, and unlawful and arbitrary detention”.

    “To hold an important UN event in such a country without properly mentioning its human rights record is, to my mind, outrageous,” he adds. Keith and fellow barrister Rhys Davies, on behalf of an anonymous client, have written to 19 companies, including Unilever, Ikea and Coca-Cola, urging them not to get involved with COP28 and to use their corporate power to condemn human rights abuses.

    What may happen to protesters at COP28 is of great concern to Keith. “There is a huge difference with a Just Stop Oil protester getting a conviction in the UK,” he says. “If they want to go to prison for breaking the law, that’s their issue. But you do that in the UAE and there is a serious risk of torture.” He names an “awful” 2013 report by NGO Reprieve that details electric shocks, beatings, abuse and forced confessions in Dubai’s central jail.

    “Whether that will happen to foreigners, I don’t know,” says Keith. He cites the treatment meted out according to one British doctoral student, Matthew Hedges, who was arrested at Dubai airport in 2018 on suspicion of spying for the British government. Hedges was sentenced to life imprisonment in the UAE before being pardoned. Keith also highlights the case of Ali Issa Ahmad, a British Arsenal fan, who was arrested and detained in the UAE in 2019 after wearing a Qatar national team shirt to a football match.

     “If they can imprison and torture a man for wearing the wrong shirt, what they are going to do to someone who says: ‘You are lying about your commitment to climate change; you fabricated your green credentials; you are only hosting COP28 to launder your own reputation’?”  

    Activists with “any sort of profile” may have the spyware Pegasus inserted on their phone, he warns. This, however, may be a blessing in disguise, if they are stopped at the border and turned back. Individuals who make it into the UAE and protest are “likely to be detained in custody”, he says. “The chances of mistreatment are very high and the chances of conviction are a basic certainty.”

    It’s possible that the UAE may have “international sensitivities”, Keith suggests. Rather than protesters being charged with political activity, he says, they are “far more likely to be charged with a drug offence or some other minor offence that is fabricated to make them look like a common criminal. That will give the UAE the ability to convict, sentence and deport people from the UAE quickly.”

    7Jul, 2023
    Jordanian Justice Ministry: No extradition request was received concerning al-Romaithi 

    Jordan’s response to questions about the disappeared Turkish-Emirati dual national Khalaf al-Romaithi have only raised further queries, say the MP who posed the questions, Romaithi’s lawyer and rights groups.

    Romaithi, 58, was detained in Amman on 7 May after an iris scan at Queen Alia Airport revealed an Emirati warrant for his arrest. He was initially released on bail, but then later arrested by plainclothed police officers, and was due to have his case heard in court on 16 May.

    After an initial court hearing on 9 May, Romaithi has not been seen by his lawyers and family.

    A week later, Emirati state media reported that he had been “received” in the UAE. A Turkish official told interested parties that Romaithi was taken by a private plane to the UAE on 12 May.

    But neither his exact whereabouts, nor how he ended up in the UAE have been clarified publicly by the UAE, Jordan or Turkey, who have remained silent on the topic – until the release this week of answers to parliamentary questions raised by Jordanian MP Adnan Mashuqa in May. 

    Among a list of queries, Mashuqa had asked the prime minister’s office how it was possible that Romaithi had been extradited to the UAE without a court decision in Jordan. 

    The justice ministry responded with a five-page letter released on Tuesday, with one line about Romaithi: “No extradition request was received from the Ministry of Justice concerning the citizen Khalaf al-Romaithi to date.”

    Both Mashuqa and Romaithi’s lawyer, Asim al-Omari, told Middle East Eye that the response was insufficient and asked why, when questions were posed to the prime minister’s office, only the justice ministry had responded.

    “The response of the Ministry of Justice was evasive,” Omari told MEE. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior must respond because they have roles according to the law in the agreement signed between Jordan and the UAE in 1999.”

    The 1999 agreement, which stipulates how the two countries cooperate legally, says that nationals arrested in the other country who are wanted for political issues should not be handed over, but also says that terrorism is not considered political.

    These points are particularly relevant for the case of Romaithi who was convicted in 2013 in a mass trial dubbed the UAE94.

    Rights groups have widely criticised the trial as grossly unfair and political in nature, while UAE authorities maintain that Romaithi and others convicted in the case are terrorists.

    Last week, UN experts warned that the Arab Interior Ministers Council, an Arab League security body that circulated the UAE’s warrant for Romaithi, is failing to shield people who are wanted for political activities from extradition.

    The experts pointed, in particular, to concerns over the conflation of political activities and terrorism in the laws of some member states.

    Hamad al-Shamsi, a friend of Romaithi’s who runs the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre, said he also found the ministry’s response problematic and that it suggested to him that the government knows it violated international and even Jordanian laws.

    “However, it is crucial for the Jordanian government to understand that these responses do not absolve them of their responsibility regarding Al-Romaithi as it was the government that detained him,” he told MEE. 

    “We are discussing a state where the rule of law should prevail. How can someone simply disappear and everyone involved evades responsibility? The judiciary claims no knowledge, and the government echoes the same words.”

    He added that the judiciary’s lack of awareness suggests that his friend’s case was handled entirely by the security services of both countries, and raised questions about Emirati influence on Jordan and its ability to transform sovereign ministries into “tools for carrying out kidnapping”.

    4Jul, 2023
    Online panel on Arab League “Interpol”

    Along with Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC) and MENA Rights Group, SANID campaign is organising an online panel on 12th July 2023 under the title Arab League “Interpol.”

    The event will shed light on the Arab Interior Ministers Council’s active role in arresting prominent human rights defenders in the MENA region and its transnational repression and human rights abuses. 

    Speakers will include Hamad al-Shamsi, head of Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC), political commentator Sherif Osman, Barrister at 33 Bedford Row Haydée Dijkstal, and Falah Sayed from 
    MENA Rights.

    2Jul, 2023
    Amnesty: Ahead of COP28, Emirati civil society actors sentenced in mass trial remain behind bars

    Marking a decade since the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities sentenced 60 members of Emirati civil society to lengthy prison terms in a mass trial, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

    “Although we are halfway through the year in which the UAE is in the international spotlight through its upcoming hosting of the most important annual climate change conference, COP28, its government has not released any of the 60 Emiratis it unjustly imprisoned in the notorious mass trial of 2013, even though 51 of those detained have completed their sentence.

    “Governments that could influence the UAE have stayed disappointingly silent on the need for these prisoners to be immediately released. COP28 will not bring about the ambitious action we need to avoid climate breakdown if it is held in an environment where the host state has laws that restrict the freedom of expression of participants and a track record of throttling civil society.

    “The mass trial of 2013 — and the resulting imprisonment of scores of state critics, 24 of whom are prisoners of conscience — has left a stain on the UAE’s human rights record for more than a decade. If governments around the world want to ensure that COP28 is not tarnished by repression and is successful in delivering urgent and effective climate action, they must act now by pressuring the Emirati government to urgently release these prisoners.”

    Read more: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/07/uae-ahead-of-cop28-civil-society-actors-sentenced-in-mass-trial-remain-behind-bars/

    2Jul, 2023
    Joint Statement: UAE Human Rights Record Ahead of COP28

    Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continue their sustained assault on human rights and freedoms, including targeting human rights activists, enacting repressive laws, and using the criminal justice system as a tool to eliminate the human rights movement. These policies have led to the closure of civic space, severe restrictions on freedom of expression, both online and offline, and the criminalisation of peaceful dissent.

    For more than 10 years, UAE authorities have been unjustly detaining at least 60 Emirati human rights defenders, civil society activists, and political dissidents who were arrested in 2012 because of their demands for reform and democracy or their affiliation with the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah). Some from this group, commonly known as the “UAE 94” because of the number of defendants in their mass trial, were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment. They were sentenced to between 7 and 15 years in prison during a trial in 2013 that failed to meet minimum fair trial standards.

    More than three-quarters of these prisoners have completed their sentences yet remain in arbitrary detention to date. UAE authorities refuse to release them, alleging that they continue to pose a “terrorist threat,” based on vague laws that allow their indefinite detention, in flagrant violation of international human rights law. 

    The list of 60 detainees includes human rights defenders, activists, academics, lawyers, university professors, and royal family members, such as Dr. Mohammed Al-Roken, a leading human rights lawyer; Dr. Mohammed Al-Mansoori, a legal expert; Hadef Al-Owais, the dean of the Graduate School at UAE University; and Sheikh Sultan Al-Qasimi from the ruling family of Ras Al-Khaimah emirate. 

    By mid-2023, many of the detainees will have spent almost 11 years behind bars. Some have been denied family visits and communication with their families for up to five years. 

    Meanwhile, some of their families have been subjected to unrelenting reprisals. In some cases, the UAE authorities have arbitrarily revoked the citizenship of detainees and their families, depriving them of their rights as Emirati nationals and leaving them stateless. In other cases, the authorities have imposed travel bans on their family members, prevented them from studying or working, and have frozen their bank accounts. In November 2021, Muhammad Al-Nuaimi, the son of UAE94 defendant Ahmed Al-Nuaimi who has been living in self-imposed exile since 2012, passed away in the UAE. Muhammad had been placed under a travel ban in reprisal for his father’s activism, preventing him from being reunited with his parents and five siblings.

    The UAE government has also unjustly imprisoned other Emiratis and foreigners over the past decade, such as the academic Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith; the prominent blogger and 2015 Martin Ennals Award winner Ahmed Mansoor; Abdulrahman Al-Nahhas, a Syrian; and Ahmed Al-Atoum, a Jordanian. Abdullah Al-Helou, whose prison sentence ended 6 years ago, and Abdulwahed Al-Badi, an engineer, whose sentence ended five years ago, are among those still in prison years after their sentences were completed.

    In recent years, the UAE authorities have also issued a new Cybercrime Law (No. 34 of 2021) to restrict online activism and dissent and passed a law providing for the establishment of a National Munasaha Centre (No. 28 of 2019) with the alleged purpose of “counselling and rehabilitation of holders of terrorist, extremist or deviant thought”, broadening the scope of the 2014 anti-terrorism law which already allows for the indefinite detention of prisoners of conscience for “counselling” purposes. 

    As the UAE will host the 28th United Nations global climate talks (COP28) from 30 November to 12 December 2023, we express our deep concern over the human rights situation in the country, particularly the severe restrictions imposed by the authorities on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, which seriously undermine the work of civil society and the space for political dissent in the country. 

    In addition, the UAE government could try to use its COP28 presidency to cynically promote an image of openness and tolerance, despite the UAE’s failure to respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

    The UAE is one of the world’s largest oil producers, and funds from its vast fossil fuel industry provide themajority of the UAE’s government revenue. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the UAE’s foremost fossil fuel company, recently announced it was expanding all aspects of its operations — despite a growing consensus that there cannot be new oil, gas, or coal development if governments are to meet global climate targets and protect human rights.

    Civil society groups fear that the severe restrictions imposed by the UAE authorities in recent years will hinder the full and meaningful participation of journalists, activists, human rights defenders, civil society, youth groups, and indigenous peoples’ representatives at COP28.

    Advancing climate justice and human rights requires a holistic approach to designing and implementing environmental policy, which includes addressing historically rooted social injustices, environmental destruction, the disproportionate effects of climate change on marginalized communities, severe abuses by businesses, corruption, impunity, and social and economic inequality. The most vital voices pushing back against these systemic problems in favour of meaningful and ambitious climate action have come from civil society.

    Civil society actors will struggle to effectively play their role in pushing for ambitious action to address the climate crisis in a country whose government has such an abysmal human rights record. This is why the UAE, as the host country for COP28, is putting at risk any potentially positive outcome of the summit if it does not urgently stop its ongoing violations of human rights and lift restrictions on civic space.

    The international community, including human rights organisations and UN human rights experts, has documented the ongoing violations by the UAE authorities since 2011.

    Since 2013, the UAE has appeared in every annual report of the UN Secretary-General on intimidation and reprisals against those seeking to cooperate or having cooperated with the UN, demonstrating the continued harassment faced by human rights defenders in the UAE. The 2021 report describes “cases of arbitrary detentions, long prison sentences and the use of counter-terrorism legislation to target human rights defenders [in the UAE], including those facing reprisals for cooperation with the United Nations,” and criticises “law No. 7 on Combatting Terrorism Offences (2014), noting that its overly broad definitions of terrorist organisations might severely curtail the work of human rights defenders, including their ability to engage in international forums.”

    In July 2022, the UN Committee against Torture, in its Concluding Observations following the review of the UAE, expressed “particular concern that reports received detail a pattern of torture and ill-treatment against human rights defenders and persons accused of offences against State security who, by virtue of the State security or terrorism charges against them, are subject to a legal regime with fewer and more restrictive procedural guarantees.” 

    In September 2022, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued a general allegation on the pattern of enforced disappearances in the UAE, containing 12 questions to Emirati authorities. However, to date, they have failed to respond. Meanwhile, the UAE authorities continue to block UN experts from conducting in-country research and visiting prisons and detention facilities.

    Recommendations:

    1. Immediately and unconditionally release all those detained solely for the exercise of their human rights.

    2. End all abuse and harassment of detained critics, human rights defenders, political opposition members, and their families.

    3. Amend all repressive laws that violate human rights, including the Anti-Terrorism Law, the Penal Code, and the Cybercrime Law, and bring them into line with international human rights standards.

    4.  Close all secret detention centres.

    5.  End all restrictions on civil society organisations, and allow the establishment of entirely independent civil society institutions.

    6. End restrictions on civic space and uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly to enable meaningful participation of civil society and indigenous peoples at COP28.

    7. Ensure an ambitious and human rights-consistent outcome of COP28, including through but not limited to the adoption of a call to all states to phase out all fossil fuels and all fossil fuels subsidies to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

    Signatories:

    1.     Access Now

    2.     Amnesty International

    3.     ALQST for Human Rights

    4.     Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK

    5.     Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)

    6.     AVT-UAE

    7.     Center for International Policy

    8.     CIVICUS

    9.     Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)

    10.  Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC)

    11.  Emirates Centre for Human Rights

    12.  Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

    13.  Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)

    14.  Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

    15.  Front Line Defenders

    16.  Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties

    17.  Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

    18.  Global Witness

    19.  Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

    20.  Grassroots International

    21.  Human Rights Watch (HRW)

    22.  Human Rights Solidarity/Geneva

    23.  IFEX

    24.  International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE (ICFUAE)

    25.  International Centre for Justice and Human Rights (ICJHR)

    26.  International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)

    27.  International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

    28.  LAMU WOMEN ALLIANCE

    29.  MENA Rights Group

    30.  Migrants Workers Voice

    31.  No Peace Without Justice

    32.  Presente.org

    33.  Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)

    34.  Rights Realization Centre

    35.  Réseau des jeunes pour le développement communautaire

    36.  Salam for Democracy and Human Rights

    37.  Sierra Leone School Green Club

    38.  Skyline International for human rights

    39.  Stop Wapenhandel

    40.  The Freedom Initiative (FI)

    41.  Women are Change Agents

    42. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

    43. FairSquare

    44. Detained International

    45. Natural Resource Women Platform (NRWP)

    46. Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

    47. Centre for Citizens Conserving Environment & Management (CECIC)

    48. Pathways for Women’s Empowerment and Development (PaWED)

    49. Indigenous Environmental Network

    50. Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

    51. Pacific Islands Climate Action Network

    52. Global Platforms

    53. Humanist_4_MENA

    54. Freedom Forward

    55. Kashmir Law and Justice Project

    *Sign SANID petition, click here: