• UAE: Free Speech Under Attack
    Press release
    Jan 25, 2012
    The United Arab Emirates during 2011 muzzled the right of its citizens to express themselves and to form independent associations, Human Rights Watch said today in issuing its World Report 2012 at a news conference in Dubai.
  • Joint Letter to UAE Minister of Social Affairs Regarding Civil Society Crackdown
    Letter
    Dec 23, 2011
    The steps taken by the authorities against the Jurist Association can be seen as a hostile takeover of the association by the UAE government in an attempt to silence this active member of the UAE’s civil society. It is part of a larger crackdown on dissent that has also resulted in the arrest and trial of five activists on charges of “publicly insulting” ruling officials, although the five men were eventually pardoned on 28 November 2011 after a guilty verdict a day earlier.
  • UAE: Expunge Activists’ Convictions
    Press release
    Nov 30, 2011
    The decision to commute the sentences of five activists recognizes that they should not have been prosecuted in the first place, but authorities should also expunge the convictions from their records.
  • UAE: Prison Sentence for Activists an Attack on Free Expression
    Press release
    Nov 28, 2011

    A guilty verdict against five activists by the United Arab Emirates’ Federal Supreme Court on November 27, 2011, is an attack on freedom of expression and the result of an unfair trial. The panel of four foreign judges delivered the verdict in a ten-minute oral statement in court, sentencing Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent UAE reformer, to three years imprisonment and the rest to two years each for publicly insulting UAE authorities. The detainees have no right of appeal in the case.

  • UAE: Investigate Threats against ‘UAE 5’
    Press release
    Nov 25, 2011
    Authorities have failed to investigate a campaign of death threats, slander and intimidation against five jailed Emirati activists, says an independent report released today. The report, written on behalf of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) with research assistance from Human Rights Watch, documents the threats, including death threats, by government sympathizers and the atmosphere of impunity in which they have been made.
  • Statement of 5 UAE Detainees
    Fact Sheet
    Nov 11, 2011
    Having endured seven months of detention, estrangement from our families and loved ones, numerous holidays separated from them, a smear campaign, and the politicization and mobilization of public opinion against us, we feel compelled to clearly state certain facts that have been intentionally concealed.
  • UAE: Activists Planning Hunger Strike
    Press release
    Nov 11, 2011
    Five activists jailed seven months ago for “publicly insulting” United Arab Emirates officials plan to begin a hunger strike on November 13, 2011. The activists said the hunger strike will continue until authorities release them unconditionally and end all judicial proceedings against them.
  • UAE: Trial Observer Finds Due Process Flaws in ‘UAE 5’ Case
    Press release
    Nov 2, 2011
    The Federal Supreme Court trial of five Emirati activists accused of "publicly insulting" top United Arab Emirates officials in an internet forum has been grossly unfair, and the case against them has no basis in international law as it violates their freedom of expression, a trial observer appointed by a coalition of international human rights organizations said today.
  • UAE: Sorbonne Should Condemn Lecturer’s Prosecution
    Press release
    Oct 13, 2011
    Paris-Sorbonne University and its Emirati partner, Sorbonne Abu Dhabi University, should break their six-month silence and condemn the trial and imprisonment of the Sorbonne lecturer Nasser bin Ghaith. Bin Ghaith, who has lectured at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi University since 2009, was teaching an intensive class the very week he was arrested, on April 9, 2011, according to interviews and documents obtained by Human Rights Watch.
  • UAE: A Call for Help
    Letter
    Oct 8, 2011
    We, the families of Dr. Nasser Ahmed Khalfan Bin Gaith Al Merri (41, Emirati), Ahmed Mansour Ali Abdullah Al Abd Al Shihhi (42, Emirati), Fahd Mohamed Salim al Dalak Al Shihhi (39, Emirati), Hassan Ali Hassan Nasser Al Khamis (39, Emirati), and Ahmed AbdulKhaliq Ahmed Karim (34, without identity documents), who are held in prison over misdemeanor cases at the Higher Federal Court. We come forward with this petition to your most courteous selves after they had spent 6 full months in imprisonment.