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Letter to His Excellency Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan al-Nahyan, President of the U.A.E.

31 March 2003

His Excellency Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan al-Nahyan
President of the UAE, Ruler of Abu Dhabi
Manhal Palace, PO Box 280
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Your Excellency,

Human Rights Watch is writing to Your Excellency to recommend respectfully that the United Arab Emirates commence the appropriate steps to consider and then ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. We have also written to the other member governments of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, requesting that they also begin the process of ratification or accession to this important new international treaty.

The Convention, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted on December 18, 1990, will enter into force on July 1, 2003. It establishes basic principles for the treatment of migrant workers and their families, and provides international standards to protect the rights of migrants in countries of origin, transit, and destination.

Human Rights Watch understands that about 80 percent of the Emirates’ current population of 2.94 million is comprised of foreigners, who also constitute approximately 90 percent of the labor force of 1.7 million. It is in view of these statistics – and the large number of migrant workers in other Cooperation Council states – that we urge Your Excellency and other leaders to consider becoming a party to the migrant rights treaty. Such a step would send an unmistakably positive signal that the six regional governments wish to take a lead role internationally to ensure the rights of these often-vulnerable men and women. Among other Arab states, Egypt and Morocco have acceded to and ratified the Convention, respectively, as of this writing.

The Convention guarantees the full range of internationally recognized human rights to all migrant workers and their families. These rights – enumerated in Part III of the treaty -- include the right to life, the right to not be subjected to torture or other forms of ill-treatment, the right to due-process of law, and the right to freedom of movement, expression, and religion. With respect to freedom of association, the Convention provides for the right of migrants “to form associations and trade unions in the State of

employment for the promotion and protection of their economic, social, cultural and other interests,” in article 40(1). The right to join freely such groups and participate in their meetings and other activities is established in article 26.

The Convention prohibits private and public actions that target and harm migrants. Article 16(2) guarantees to migrants and their families “effective protection by the State against violence, physical injury, threats and intimidation, whether by public officials or by private individuals, groups or institutions.” Article 21 prohibits the unauthorized confiscation of any migrant’s documents: “It shall be unlawful for anyone, other than a public official duly authorized by law, to confiscate, destroy or attempt to destroy identity documents, documents authorizing entry to or stay, residence or establishment in the national territory or work permits. No authorized confiscation of such documents shall take place without delivery of a detailed receipt. In no case shall it be permitted to destroy the passport or equivalent document of a migrant worker or a member of his or her family.”

Significantly, the Convention recognizes the serious worldwide problem of migrants without legal status whose situations are thus “irregular,” and seeks to promote lawful conditions of employment. It stipulates that migrant workers and members of their families may not “be held in slavery or servitude” or “required to perform forced or compulsory labor,” pursuant to articles 11(1) and 11(2), respectively, seeks to eliminate the inherent exploitation and unfair competition that trafficking in persons represents. Article 68(1) of the Convention calls for cooperation among States parties to prevent and eliminate such “illegal or clandestine movements and employment,” and requires states to undertake the following measures:

· prevent the dissemination of misleading information relating to emigration and immigration;
· detect and eradicate illegal or clandestine movements of migrant workers and members of their families;
· impose effective sanctions on persons, groups or entities which organize, operate or assist in organizing or operating such movements;
· impose effective sanctions on persons, groups or entities which use violence, threats or intimidation against migrant workers or members of their families in “irregular” situations; and
· impose sanctions on employers of workers in “irregular” situations, whenever appropriate.

The protections of the Convention cover the entire migration process of each individual – from pre-departure preparations through eventual return to the state of origin -- and do not single out only those states that employ migrant workers. The Convention also grants broad latitude to states to maintain their own policies with respect to the use of migrant workers in their labor forces. For example, it explicitly recognizes “the right of each State Party to establish the criteria governing admission of migrant workers and members of their families” (article 79), and specifies that states may restrict the access of migrants “to limited categories of employment, functions, services or activities where this is necessary in the interests of this State and provided for by national legislation,” pursuant to article 52(2)(a). In addition, article 34 of the Convention requires migrant workers and members of their families “to comply with the laws and regulations of any State of transit and the State of employment,” and “to respect the cultural identity of the inhabitants of such States.”

In closing, Human Rights Watch notes that the Concluding Observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, published on June 7, 2002, which found in the United Arab Emirates “disparities in the enjoyment of economic and social rights, particularly health and education, experienced by non-national children,” and called attention to “the hazardous situation of children involved in camel racing, in particular that sometimes very young children were involved, were trafficked, particularly from Africa and South Asia, were denied education and healthcare, and that such involvement produced serious injuries, even fatalities.”

With respect to women migrants, we also call the attention of Your Excellency to one of the conclusions of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The committee recommended to the United Arab Emirates in 1995 that the government show “utmost diligence” in “preventing acts of ill-treatment being committed against foreign workers, especially foreign women domestic servants, and take all appropriate measures to ensure that they are not subjected to any racial discrimination.”

Human Rights Watch hopes Your Excellency will conclude that the guarantees and protections for migrant workers and their families, as set forth in the Convention, merit support and cooperation from all members of the international community. We look forward to timely initiatives in the United Arab Emirates to become a party to this treaty.

We thank Your Excellency in advance for your attention to, and consideration of, this important matter. Human Rights Watch would welcome the opportunity to discuss our concerns with relevant government officials in the near future.

Sincerely,

Hanny Megally
Executive Director
Middle East and North Africa Division

Cc:
His Excellency Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister
His Excellency Rashid bin Abdullah al-Nuaymi, Minister of Foreign Affairs
His Excellency Matar Humayd al-Tayir, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs