Event: COVID-19: Time to free Ahmed Mansoor and all UAE human rights defenders detained in abhorrent conditions

Today, 10 March, at an online-streamed UN Human Rights Council side event, NGOs called for drastic improvements in the human rights situation in the UAE, following a decade of increasing systematic state-sponsored repression.

The event was jointly held by a coalition of five human rights organizations with a focus on the MENA region: ICFUAE, ADHRB, ICJHR, MENA Rights Group, and ALQST. Titled “COVID-19: Time to free Ahmed Mansoor and all UAE human rights defenders detained in abhorrent conditions”, the panel aimed to explore both the plight of imprisoned human rights defenders and the international mechanisms that can be leveraged to push for their release.

The event had four panelists: Brian Dooley, Inès Osman, Hamad Al-Shamsi, and Julia Legner; and was moderated by Sofia Kaltenbrunner, campaign manager at ICFUAE.

Panelists offered their insights into the desperate situation facing human rights defenders in the UAE, detailing the cases of Ahmed Mansoor, UAE94 group, and all the other prisoners of conscience including those detained in Munasaha Centers despite the end of their sentence. The pressing nature of these cases was discussed as prisoners are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19, posing an imminent threat to their already vulnerable state of wellbeing.

In this context, Brian Dooley, Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, provided insight into the condition of detention in the UAE. Mr. Dooly stressed that for a long time the situation of HRDs in the UAE has been enormously difficult even before COVID19 and that they should be released. He also presented the priorities of the Special Rapporteur on HRDs, focusing on the issue of human rights defenders, who are sentenced to long terms in detention. 

Co-founder and director at MENA Rights Group, Inès Osman, addressed the legal context under which many prisoners of conscience are persecuted, describing how vaguely worded provisions in the penal code, cybercrime and anti-terror laws have been used to ‘criminalize freedom of speech’ in the UAE. 

Hamad Al-Shamsi, an Emirati rights defender, gave a personal account of reprisals faced by families of political prisoners at the hands of Emirati authorities. He highlighted the systematic practice of collective punishment against the families of UAE prisoners, including travel bans, active surveillance, and the refusal to renew IDs. Mr. al-Shamsi also spoke about the issue of “Munasaha” centres where political prisoners are held beyond their sentence without access to legal counsel or the right to appeal. 

Julia Legner, head of advocacy at ALQST, put the aforementioned cases into a wider regional context. Ms. Legner said that, during the Arab Spring, the UAE stifled any form of protest before it could even erupt and they did so through harsh repression of all dissenting voices. In addition, she highlighted the shared malpractices of other countries in the region, including arrests of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.  

Following the panel, questions from the audience focused on how best to address the ongoing human rights crisis in the UAE, as well as how to influence any potential change for the better.

In her closing remarks, Sofia Kaltenbrunner called for urgent action by the UN Human Rights Council and the European Parliament and thanked the panelists for being a voice for those who may otherwise be silenced.