United Arab Emirates

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The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has for the fourth time called for the release of peaceful dissidents detained after unfair trials and arbitrarily detained, despite the expiry of their sentences, by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and demanding political reforms. 

The authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are still holding more than 60 prisoners of conscience who have completed their sentences, some of whom completed their sentences in July 2022, but remain, after a series of violations, torture and ill-treatment, behind bars under the pretext of  "counseling". 

Among the victims who have completed their sentences is prominent lawyer and human rights activist Mohamed al-Roken, who has spent ten years in prison following an unfair trial. 

Alkarama strongly condemns Jordan's extradition of Emirati businessman Khalaf Abdulrahman Al Rumaithi – sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in connection with the so-called "UAE 94" case by the Abu Dhabi authorities - despite the risk of torture and ill-treatment and in flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture to which Jordan is a party. 

United Arab Emirates
Our concerns
  • Repression of freedom of opinion and expression and reprisals against human rights defenders and peaceful dissidents;
  • Continued and systematic practice of torture to extract confessions during investigations and as a form of punishment;
  • Exportation of the systematic practice of enforced disappearance and torture to UAE-controlled theatres of operation in Yemen.

 

Human Rights Instruments
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
ICCPR Ratified ?
Individual Complaint procedure with the Human Rights committee (ICCPR Optional protocol 1) Ratified ?
Second Optional Protocol of ICCPR (abolition of death penalty) ratified ?
Next Human Rights Committee State Report due
OVERDUE - State party did not submit report on time
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (UNCAT)
UNCAT Ratified ?
UNCAT Ratification Date
OPCAT (National Preventive Mechanism) Ratified ?
National Preventive Mechanism (OPCAT) created ?
UNCAT Art 20 (confidential inquiries) ratified ?
UNCAT Art 21 (Interstate complaints) ratified ?
UNCAT Art 22 (Individual Complaint procedure) Ratified ?
Date of last Concluding Observations by Committee against Torture (CAT)
Next CAT State Report Due
OVERDUE - State party did not submit report on time
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED)
ICPPED Ratified ?
ICPPED Art 31 (Individual communications) ratified ?
ICPPED Art 33 (Inquiry procedure ) ratified ?
Human Rights Council
Date last Universal Period Review (UPR)
Membership of Human Rights Council:

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