Analysis / United Arab Emirates
The UAE must release all political prisoners before hosting COP28
In this op-ed originally published by Newsweek, our Human Rights Officer Falah Sayed and Emirati activist Jenan AlMarzooqi explain how the UAE is trying to sweep its appalling human rights record under the rug and present itself as "respectful of human rights" by hosting COP28.
UN Group questions United Arab Emirates on pattern of enforced disappearances in the country
The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) recently published a general allegation on the pattern of enforced disappearances in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following a submission by MENA Rights Group in September 2022.
MENA Rights Group highlights widespread practice of enforced disappearance in the United Arab Emirates in general allegation to the UN
MENA Rights Group submitted a general allegation to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances highlighting obstacles to the implementation of the 1992 Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance in the United Arab Emirates.
New UAE penal code: increased restrictions on fundamental freedoms
1. Context In November 2021, Emirati state news agency WAM announced the amendment of 40 federal laws.[i] The announced legal changes included the enactment of a new Federal Crime and Punishment Law (penal code) that came into force in January 2022.[ii] This new code replaced the previous one, which dated from 1987.
UAE authorities detain critics and activists at Munasaha “rehabilitation” centres
Research by MENA Rights Group has revealed that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities are using Munasaha centres, or ‘counselling’ centres, to detain critics and activists de facto indefinitely, on broad and vague legal grounds.
UAE: COVID-19 outbreak puts Al Wathba prison’s detainees at risk
The UAE authorities have failed to take the necessary measures to address the COVID-19 outbreak in Al Wathba prison, Abu Dhabi, putting the health and life of prisoners at serious risk. On June 12, 2020, MENA Rights Group submitted an urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, expressing concerns regarding the prisoners’ lack of access to medical care and poor prison conditions.