UAE Collective punishment policy: Citizenship revocation

As part of its collective punishment policy, UAE strips citizenship from family members of political prisoners.

Although Article 15 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR) states that "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality", citizenship revocation has been used as a punishment in the UAE.

The UAE authorities revoked the nationality of dozens of Emirati peaceful human rights activists along with their families.

Since the beginning of 2016, at least 15 cases of nationality withdrawal were reported while the total number of Emiratis who were stripped of their nationality has reached 60 individuals.

Those whose citizenship has been stripped will not be able to gain access to basic services or travel overseas.

In 2016, the UAE has revoked the citizenship of three Emiratis who are the children of political prisoner Mohammed Abdulrazzaq al-Siddiq.

Asma, 29, Doa’a, 25, and Omar, 23, are the children of Mohammed Abdulrazzaq al-Siddiq, who was jailed for 10 years for plotting to overthrow the state, in a controversial 2013 trial of 94 political activists with links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The citizenship revocation affected several of the accused in the “UAE 94” case, a mass trial that was condemned by many human rights organisations.

Moreover, several UN special rapporteurs and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention classified the procedure as an unfair trial that lacked due process and violated international standards. 

Therefore, several international bodies called for the release of the 61 convicted, amongst whom the following were stripped of their nationality:

- Sheikh Mohammed Abdul-Razzaq Siddiq
- Dr. Hussein Al Hammadi
- Dr. Shaheen Abdullah Al Hosni
- Mr. Hussein Munif al-Jabri
- Mr. Hassan Munif al-Jabri
- Prof. Ibrahim Hassan Al Marzouki
- Prof. Ahmed Ghaith Al Suwaidi