In 2024, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) unjustly convicted and sentenced at least 44 defendants in the second largest unfair mass trial, many of whom had already been serving prison sentences as part of the UAE94 mass trial. The UAE has promoted a public image of tolerance and openness through hosting events like COP28 while restricting scrutiny of its rampant systemic human rights violations and fossil fuel expansion. Migrant workers in the UAE face widespread abuses and exposure to dangerous heat-related health risks.
Freedom of Expression, Assembly, and Association
The UAE places severe restrictions on the rights to free expression, association, and assembly. Scores of critics are serving lengthy sentences in UAE prisons following unfair trials on vague and broad charges that violate their rights to free expression and association.
Emirati authorities convicted at least 44 defendants out of 84 human rights defenders and dissidents following an unfair trial anddespite allegations of being held in prolonged solitary confinement. The 84 individuals were accused of terrorism-related crimes for their involvement in establishing an independent advocacy group, the Justice and Dignity Committee, in 2010.
Out of the 44 defendants whose conviction has been confirmed, 4 people were sentenced to 15 years in prison, 40 to life in prison, including academic Nasser bin Ghaithv, Abdulsalam Darwish al-Marzouqi, and Sultan Bin Kayed al-Qasimi, and at least one defendant was acquitted, according to the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center. At least 60 of the defendants, including al-Marzouqi and al-Qasimi, were already convicted in the UAE94 case for their involvement with the Justice and Dignity Committee.
The mass trial was characterized by significant violations of due process and fair trial standards, such as restricted access to case materials and information, inadequate legal representation, judges influencing witness testimony, breaches of the principle of double jeopardy, credible reports of severe abuse and mistreatment, and hearings conducted behind closed doors.
Among the defendants is prominent Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor, member of the Board of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and of the Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.
Emirati authorities have also arbitrarily detained, convicted, and sentenced 57 Bangladeshi protesters in the UAE to long prison sentences in rapid trials based on their participation in peaceful protests in solidarity with student protesters in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi protesters imprisoned in the UAE were pardoned and released in September 2024.
UAE’s Federal Penal Code and the Cybercrime Law are used to silence dissidents, journalists, activists, and anyone the authorities perceived to be critical of the government, its policies, or its representatives. These laws have led to the complete closure of civic space, severe restrictions on freedom of expression, both online and offline, and the criminalization of peaceful dissent.
Emirati authorities have used these broadly worded laws to imprison citizens and residents for peaceful social media posts that were deemed to be critical of the governments in the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan. Jordanian activist Ahmed al-Atoum, who worked as a teacher in Abu Dhabi, is serving a 10-year sentence for peaceful social media activity.
Sanctions
The UN Panel of Experts on the Sudan found allegations of UAE support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to be “credible” and said that “the transfers of arms and ammunition into Darfur” that they documented “constituted violations of the arms embargo.” Human Rights Watch identified military equipment used in Sudan produced by companies registered in China, Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the UAE.
Human Rights Watch has called on the UN Security Council to renew and ensure the enforcement of the mandate of the Sudan 1591 sanctions regime, publicly condemn individual governments that violate the existing UN Security Council arms embargo on Darfur, and impose sanctions on individuals or entities who are in violation of the arms embargo, including individuals and entities in the UAE. The UK, which is penholder on Sudan at the Security Council, has failed to publicly call out the UAE for its support to the RSF.
Migrant Workers
Employers hold disproportionate control over migrant workers under the kafala (sponsorship) system, preventing them from changing jobs without the employer’s consent. Employers can file false “absconding” charges even when workers leave to escape abuse, causing them to risk detention and deportation. Migrant workers continue to face widespread abuses like wage theft, illegal recruitment fees, and passport confiscation, which leave workers in situations that may amount to forced labor. The UAE also bans trade unions, which prevents workers from demanding stronger labor protections. The UAE still does not have a non-discriminatory minimum wage.
Migrant workers play an indispensable role in the UAE workforce, yet the government fails to protect essential workers from climate change-related risks.
Outdoor migrant workers in the UAE are among the most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses and death. The UAE continues to rely solely on a summer midday work ban as the primary heat protection measure, despite evidence of its ineffectiveness in protecting workers.
Beyond inadequate heat protections, migrant workers are also subject to serious labor abuses like wage theft and exorbitant recruitment fees which affect their ability to send home remittances to their families back home in climate-vulnerable countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, including to address family hardship during extreme weather events often linked to climate change.
Domestic workers, who are excluded for the labor law, are even more vulnerable to exploitation, including being confined to homes or agency offices, wage theft, and verbal, physical, and sexual violence by employers and recruiters despite legal reforms that prohibit discrimination, violence, and recruitment fees. The protections under the law on domestic workers are still weaker than the labor law and fall short of international standards.
Other governments continue to prioritize trade and other strategic interests with the UAE over human rights. The new UK government has announced the resumption of negotiations for a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the UAE is a member, despite ongoing concerns about the lack of transparency, oversight, and inclusion of concrete human rights protections and commitments, particularly for migrant workers.
Climate Change Policy and Impacts
The UAE, one of the world’s largest oil producers, sought to position itself as a global leader on climate and health issues at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 despite plans to expand its fossil fuel operations, undermining efforts to confront the climate crisis and protect human rights.
The UAE’s plan to increase fossil fuel production is inconsistent with the government’s commitments under the Paris Agreement that aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of the global climate crisis.
Fossil fuel extraction and use in the UAE are a source of toxic air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, which create major health risks for people living in the UAE and contributes to the global climate crisis. Research shows that toxic air linked to the burning of fossil fuels adversely impacts the respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems.
It is extremely difficult to scrutinize the weakness of the government’s air pollution policies or talk about the sources of air pollution due to laws and policies that criminalize peaceful dissent.
Women’s Rights
The UAE carried out limited reforms such as prohibiting discrimination based on sex and gender and removing a legal obligation on women to obey their husbands. However, those reforms fall short from uprooting all forms of discrimination against women, especially male guardianship over women.
The legal definition of domestic violence in UAE law reaffirms male guardians’ legal right to discipline their wives, female relatives, and children to an extent that authorities find acceptable. The law also does not criminalize marital rape.
Despite minor amendments to the UAE’s Federal Personal Status Law, a woman in the UAE can still lose her right to financial maintenance from her husband if she refuses to have sexual relations with him without a “lawful excuse,” abandons the marital home, or prevents her husband from entering the marital home. Under the law, wives are obliged to maintain the house and its contents and breastfeed their children unless there is an impediment. While the amendments remove discrimination in law, they still allow for judges to discriminate against women in practice. This law applies to all Muslim UAE nationals and foreign nationals. Non-Muslims can apply their own religious laws.
The law also discriminated against Emirati mothers who remain unable to pass their nationality to their children on an equal basis with Emirati men. In addition, the law grants the father default guardianship of children with the authority to make important decisions for the child. The UAE authorities confirmed to Human Rights Watch that it is the obligation of the father, or whoever has legal guardianship over the child according to the child’s nationality, to apply for their birth certificate and passport.
Abu Dhabi issued a Law on Civil Marriage and Its Effects in Abu Dhabi providing non-Muslim foreigner couples residing in Abu Dhabi with civil marriages and mostly equal rights between spouses relating to marriage, divorce, and decisions relating to children. This law creates discrimination against women based on their religion, nationality, and where they reside within the UAE. To avoid discrimination Abu Dhabi and the other emirates of the UAE federation should extend these rights to all citizens.
The Federal Penal Code criminalizes consensual nonmarital sex and abortions under overly broad “morality offences” that disproportionately affect women as pregnancy can serve as evidence of the so-called crime.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
The UAE’s Federal Penal Code criminalizes vaguely defined acts, allowing the authorities to arrest people for a wide range of behaviors, including public displays of affection, gender nonconforming expressions, and campaigns promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The law also criminalizes “sodomy” with an adult male.