September 2023 – ساند معتقلي الإمارات

27Sep, 2023

Mohamed al-Roken spends another birthday behind bars

Dr Mohammed al-Roken spends his 61st birthday behind UAE bars without any legal basis as he had already completed his 10-year prison sentence.

Dr Al-Roken is a pre-eminent Emirati human rights lawyer, who dedicated his life to defending those facing human rights violations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An award-winning academic and professor of constitutional law, he notably represented the group of human rights activists (“the UAE 5”) that was convicted and later pardoned for running a website criticising the UAE government.

For speaking out and protecting the fundamental freedoms of others, Dr Al-Roken paid a hefty price. On 2nd July 2013, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi as part of the mass trial of proponents of democratic reform (“the UAE 94”).

Dr Al-Roken’s detention, trial and subsequent prison sentence are riddled with flagrant breaches of international human rights norms.
After his initial arrest on 17th July 2012, he was held in solitary confinement at a secret location.

He was denied access to a lawyer and had no right to appeal the verdict. On 11th November 2015, Dr Al-Roken was subjected to “music torture” at Al-Razeen. The security guards purposefully blasted propaganda music in his cell at piercing volumes, leading to him losing consciousness due to high blood pressure and exacerbating his ear infection.

25Sep, 2023

CIVICUS Monitor added UAE to its watchlist

The CIVICUS Monitor in their latest global report branded the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as ‘repressed’ for civic space, and added the Gulf country in its watchlist as the crackdown has escalated ahead of the COP28 summit.

The CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist in its report titled ‘September watchlist 2023’ highlighted ‘serious concerns’ about the UAE and four other countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, Senegal and Bangladesh – regarding the exercise of civic freedoms.

The report observes these five countries are at risk of a sharp downturn in civic rights and freedoms.

The release of this report of the global civic freedom watchdog coincides with the ongoing 54th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council began on September 11 to end on October13.

Categories of the countries in its watchlist are determined based on the data compiled by the CIVICUS Monitor tracking the state of civic freedoms in 197 countries and territories using inputs from research partners based around the globe, the release read.

21Sep, 2023

UAE Refuses UPR 43 Recommendations on Human Rights

The United Arab Emirates rejected additional human rights recommendations submitted by the United Nations as part of the universal periodic review of the Emirates (UPR 43), which was held on May 8.

In its response, the UAE Mission stated that the UAE authorities accepted 198 recommendations and took note of 125 recommendations. The mission reasoned that many of these recommendations either required further investigation and alignment of the domestic legal framework with international standards and conventions or conflicted with Islamic Sharia law

This practically means that the UAE has rejected 125 recommendations of the UPR. The term ‘noted’ means that the UAE will review and carefully consider these recommendations, but will not implement them.”

Comparing the Universal Periodic Review to the previous one, we find that the number of recommendations presented to the UAE has increased from 180 to 323. This reflects a significant deterioration in the human rights situation in the UAE.

18Sep, 2023

Over 200 Organisations Demand Action on UAE Human Rights Abuses Ahead of COP28

200+ organisations called in a joint letter on participating governments at the COP28 Climate Conference to address the UAE’s ongoing human rights crisis and to ensure that COP28 climate negotiations produce the ambitious commitments necessary to address global climate change. The letter reiterated that “there can be no climate justice without human rights, and there can be no human rights without climate justice.”

The organisations affirmed that, “We, as a global network of civil society organizations, will not be silenced by a government that has long used surveillance, propaganda tactics, and violent repression to silence critics, control public discourse, and shut down civil society organizations and movements.”

“We will not allow for COP28 and the urgent and ambitious climate commitments needed from this process to be derailed or watered down by greenwashing efforts. We will oppose any attempt to use COP28 and our presence to greenwash this repressive government.”

“At COP28 and beyond, we reiterate our call that there can be no climate justice without human rights, and there can be no human rights without climate justice.”

15Sep, 2023

11 of UAE94 Group Subjected to Enforced Disappearance

11 of the UAE94 activists and human rights defenders have been forcibly disappeared over the past few months, rights sources revealed.

The MENA Rights Group confirmed in a post on X, previously known as Twitter, that the UAE authorities continue to hold 11 of the UAE94 group in an unknown location after completing their prison terms.

The rights group urged the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to call on Emirati authorities to clarify their fates and whereabouts.

The UAE is arbitrarily detaining nearly 60 human rights activists who have already completed prison terms handed down over an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

Most of those detained behind their release date were part of UAE 94 group, a group of 94 lawyers, rights advocates and academics tried in 2013 and whose jail terms in the UAE began expiring in 2019.

The 60 dissidents whose multi-year sentences had all expired since July 2019 were being held due to their status as human rights defenders and because of their efforts “to hold the authorities to account”.

12Sep, 2023

UAE keeping rights activists in jail past end of sentences

The United Arab Emirates is arbitrarily detaining nearly 60 human rights activists who have already completed prison terms handed down over an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

Most of those detained behind their release date were part of UAE 94 group, a group of 94 lawyers, rights advocates and academics tried in 2013 and whose jail terms in the UAE began expiring in 2019.

7Sep, 2023

Foreign Office apologises over handling of Matthew Hedges torture case

The UK Foreign Office has formally apologised to the academic Matthew Hedges for its handling of his arrest and subsequent torture by the United Arab Emirates.

The apology was recommended by the parliamentary ombudsman after Hedges filed a complaint.

In a letter signed by the Foreign Office’s top official, the permanent undersecretary Sir Philip Barton, it acknowledged the profound impact the arrest had on Hedges and the injustice he faced. Hedges was given £1,500 in nominal compensation, as recommended.

Barton said the Foreign Office’s handling of Hedges’s arrest was not in line with its guidelines on how to look for signs of torture, but added that in practice it led to the same outcome as if the guidelines had been followed.

He said the Foreign Office urgently sought with UAE officials further consular visits with Hedges even though the case was not formally referred to the department’s human rights adviser as the guidelines suggest.

Hedges welcomed the apology but said it was baffling that the British government still wanted such close relations with a Gulf partner that had mistreated British people.

In a report published last month, the ombudsman found that at every meeting with a Foreign Office consular official, the UAE guards allegedly responsible for Hedges’ torture were present, making it impossible to be open about his mistreatment.

He was arrested in May 2018 at Dubai airport on suspicion of being a British spy and then released after a media campaign led to his pardon in November 2018. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

In the recommended letter of apology, Barton said he recognised “the profound impact of your detention in UAE on you and the injustice you have faced”.

He added: “On behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office [FCDO], I acknowledge, and apologise for, the failing identified by the ombudsman, specifically I recognise that we did not fully follow our guidance on torture and mistreatment and that this failure has left you uncertain as to whether more could have been done on your behalf.”

4Sep, 2023

Amnesty: UAE’s efforts to stifle debate at COP28 threaten meaningful measures to tackle the climate crisis and protect human rights

Reacting to reports that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as host of the COP28 climate meeting which begins in Dubai in November, has defined a narrow list of talking points for its officials around climate issues and is aiming to avoid discussion of human rights abuses in the country, Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability programme, said:

“The escalating climate crisis is a very significant threat to people and their rights globally so the United Arab Emirates should be engaging in meaningful change to bring about a rapid end to the use of fossil fuels. Instead, the UAE’s priority at COP28 appears to be greenwashing its fossil fuel expansion plans and massaging its own reputation by seeking to avoid discussion of its dismal human rights record and continuing abuses.”

The UAE’s priority at COP28 appears to be greenwashing its fossil fuel expansion plans and massaging its own reputation by seeking to avoid discussion of its dismal human rights record and continuing abuses.”

“The UAE has pledged to hold an inclusive COP, but this ambition will fall flat if it limits public debate to carefully scripted talking points. In fact, reports that its officials are trying to narrowly define the debate only heightens our concerns that the UAE has misjudged the urgency of the climate crisis and seeks to accommodate the interests of the fossil fuel industry, which writes off current and future human rights violations associated with fossil fuels as the ‘cost of doing business’.”

“It is similarly hard to imagine an inclusive COP when the UAE’s draconian and ill-defined laws allow for the arrest of almost anyone expressing dissent, the suppression and continued detention of critics and political opponents, and the criminalization of same-sex relationships.”

“To avert a full-scale climate catastrophe, it is vital that this COP agrees to bring the fossil fuel era to a swift and just end. It must also agree to climate finance commitments that protect communities and ensure that the climate loss and damage fund agreed to at the previous COP becomes operational and effective. Negotiators must act in the interest of human rights, not the priorities of the fossil fuel companies seeking to influence COP.”