New Year’s Resolutions for UAE
As we say goodbye to 2021, we hope that the start of a new year will be the catalyst for change in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Our New Year's resolutions addressed to the Emirati government call for achievable change regarding an extensive list of human rights abuses currently common practice in the Gulf state.
Since the Arab Spring swept through the MENA region in 2011, the UAE has undertaken a widespread and systematic crackdown on civil society through repressive Cybercrime and Anti-Terrorism laws that have seen the imprisonment of a myriad of activists, lawyers, journalists and academics who criticized the regime online. Most notably, the cases of the Martin Ennals Award winner Ahmed Mansoor, the world renowned human rights activist and lawyer, Mohammed Al-Roken and the economist Dr Nasser bin Ghaith have been unjustly sentenced to 10 years for peacefully expressing political opinions and speaking out against human rights abuses committed by the government.
The array of human rights violations extends beyond the oppression of civil and political liberties: migrant and domestic workers continue to face unsafe and abusive working and living conditions, whilst military equipment is diverted to Yemen and Libya, in breach of international law.
New Year’s Resolutions:
1- Abolish the practice of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention against those who express their right to free speech, assembly and association.
2- Release political prisoners who have been imprisoned purely on speech charges, unconditionally and with immediate effect.
3- Abolish the practice of indefinite detention and release all prisoners currently held beyond their release date.
4- Allow every citizen to express their right to freedom of speech, including the right to peacefully voice opinions on all social and political matters, following article 30 of the UAE’s constitution.
5- Allow independent media outlets to operate freely, without censorship or reprisal.
6- Implement the right to freedom of association and assembly, without any governmental restrictions, to allow for human rights organisations, workers unions and political parties to be established and to operate freely and without reprisal.
7- Update Counter-Terrorism Laws in accordance with international standards, to ensure that political prisoners are no longer held in the pretence of terrorism.
8- Include gender as a category of discrimination by revising the 2015 Anti-discrimination Law, to bring it in line with international standards.
9- Reward the 2012 Cyber Crime Law bringing it in line with international standards and to ensure that free speech online is permitted without reprisals.
10- Improve prison conditions by following the guidelines outlined in the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners through the implementation of health and safety requirements, including access to healthcare, appropriate bedding and facilities, temperature controls, ventilation, natural light, potable drinking water and food that is safe to eat.
11- Allow international Independent monitors access to all detention facilities to observe and report on and the conditions.
12- Ban the practice of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners; including both physical and psychological abuse, prolonged solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and humiliating searches.
13- Provide for legal protection of all migrant workers and ensure that existing Labour Laws are more stringently implemented and enforced to stop the exploitation of foreign workers.
14- Cease the commission of war crimes, including the indiscriminate attacks on civilian facilities and the practice of torture, as part of the conflicts in Yemen and Libya.
Our 2022 resolutions are the same as those for 2021, as unfortunately, none of them was achieved over the year.
