• United Arab Emirates: End Arrests; Free Political Activists
    Press release
    Apr 30, 2012
    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities should immediately and unconditionally release nine political activists held in the context of a widening attack on dissent.
  • UAE: Saadiyat Workers Better Protected but Gaps Remain
    Press release
    Mar 21, 2012
    Emirati development partners and western educational and cultural institutions have made important commitments to address the exploitation and abuse of South Asian migrant workers, but protection gaps remain. The workers are building a US$22-billion island development in the United Arab Emirates.
  • Letter to Arab League on Syrian Refugees
    Letter
    Mar 15, 2012
    Human Rights Watch welcomes the Council of the League of Arab States’ February 12 call on Syria to end all forms of violence against Syrian civilians and to grant access to Arab and international relief organizations to bring humanitarian assistance to affected populations, and respectfully urges the ministers of the LAS Council to adopt a further resolution that calls upon all member states to provide at least temporary asylum to Syrian civilians fleeing conflict and persecution.
  • UAE: Stop Expelling Syrian Protesters
    Press release
    Mar 2, 2012
    Emirati authorities should retract their decision to cancel the residency permits of dozens of Syrians who took part in a peaceful protest against the Syrian government in Dubai.
  • 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 12, 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.