April 17, 2015 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama I am writing to urge you to advocate for significant human rights reforms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during your meeting at the White House with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. In a recent interview published in the New York Times on 5 April, you said that US government allies in the Gulf region must make changes that are more responsive to their people. You also committed to having a tough conversation with these governments about what you described as the repressive tactics they employ inside their own countries in the name of security. You said that this is a conversation you have to have. I therefore write to urge you to use your meeting with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is a powerful figure in the UAE government, to have this tough conversation about his country s human rights record. For too long, the United States of America has prioritized geopolitics and access to energy in the Gulf region over support for human rights in its relationship with the UAE. As a close ally of the USA, the UAE has been spared the blunt criticisms that US officials make of other governments in the region that commit human rights violations. I also urge you to take important public steps to show your support for those in the UAE who face repression as they peacefully stand up for their human rights. Beneath the façade of glitz and glamour of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the UAE is a deeply repressive state where peaceful political and human rights activists critical of the government can be imprisoned merely for posting a tweet. Enforced disappearance and torture, both crimes under international law, of UAE citizens and foreign nationals including US citizens regularly occur. Confessions made under such conditions are routinely accepted as evidence of guilt in proceedings that fail to meet
international fair trial standards. Often, defendants are kept in secret detention facilities before trial and have no access to the outside world, including their families or lawyers. On some occasions when human rights lawyers, such as the prominent Dr Mohammed al-roken and Harvard-educated Dr Hadef al-owais, have tried to gain access to their clients and defend them in court, they themselves have ended up in prison on spurious national-security related charges. END RESTRICTIONS ON THE RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION The UAE authorities have passed repressive cybercrime and counter-terror laws that criminalize peaceful dissent. The government is using these to silence social media activists and others who support and defend freedom of expression and other human rights. The vague and overly broad definition of terrorism in the 2014 law, for example, treats a wide range of activities, including those protected by international human rights standards, as amounting to terrorism, and may be used to sentence human rights defenders or critics of the government to lengthy prison terms or even death. END ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT In the UAE, torture and other ill-treatment during detention and interrogation have become almost routine in cases involving peaceful activists and critics of the government and are carried out with impunity. The heavy reliance by the courts on confessions often extracted under torture, duress, or deception has entrenched such abuses. Foreign nationals, including US citizens, have also been tortured inside the UAE s secret detention facilities. Yonas Fikre, who was allegedly detained at the behest of the US government, was arrested in the UAE in June 2011, and claims that he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations in detention that lasted for several months before he was released without charge. Defendants have described other methods of torture and other ill-treatment they have faced in secret detention: prolonged solitary confinement; sleep deprivation through exposure to continuous bright fluorescent lighting; being slapped and punched in the face and having their fingernails pulled out; getting subjected to humiliating treatment including being forced to kneel on the ground while being beaten with a stick on their backs and buttocks; getting suspended upside down for long periods; having their hair torn from their beards and chests; being forced to sit in an electric chair and subjected to electric shock to different parts of their bodies; being forced to hold stress positions for long periods; being threatened with electric shock torture, rape and death; being threatened with HIV infection; being hooded during interrogations and when being moved to and from their cells. 2
END UNFAIR TRIALS The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers has described the UAE s entire judicial system as under the de facto control of the executive branch of government, describing this as an important challenge for the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. 1 Since a crackdown on dissent began in the UAE in 2011, scores of peaceful activists have been imprisoned after unfair trials before the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court. 2 The Federal Supreme Court, whose judges are appointed by executive decree, has shown itself to be neither independent nor impartial when trying cases brought largely under broad and sweeping national security provisions in the Penal Code or the cybercrimes or counter-terrorism laws. Trials before the Federal Supreme Court raise particular concern because its judgements cannot be appealed to a higher court, as international human rights law requires, so defendants who are wrongly convicted have no judicial means of remedy. Since 2011, the authorities have prosecuted or imprisoned more than 100 peaceful activists and critics of the government, including prominent lawyers and judges, on broad and sweeping national security-related or cybercrimes charges. As of April 2015, at least 67 of them remain in prison, serving lengthy prison terms. Most of these were convicted following an unfair mass trial of 94 activists, many of whom were prominent lawyers, judges, and academics who had signed a petition calling for democratic reform in the UAE, known as the UAE 94 trial, which was condemned by UN bodies and human rights organizations. The State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court convicted 69 of these activists on the spurious charge of attempting to overthrow the government and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 15 years. END MIGRANT LABOR ABUSE Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the UAE authorities appear to be targeting activists who seek to document migrant labor conditions, rather than address the chronic labor abuse that affects hundreds of thousands of workers. Some foreign activists, like New York University s Professor Andrew Ross, representatives of Human Rights Watch and others have been barred from the country. Migrant workers who organised strikes and have made complaints in response to abuse have been arbitrarily detained, subjected to ill-treatment and expelled. Despite protective provisions in the Labor Law and subsequent decrees, foreign migrant workers continue to face exploitation and abuse. Many workers, who typically pay large fees to recruiting agents, have reported that they were deceived over the terms and conditions of their work. Construction workers often live in poor and inadequate accommodation, while few hold their own passports. Late payment or non-payment of wages are common. The kafala sponsorship system leaves workers vulnerable to abuse by employers, while those involved in 1 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Preliminary observations on the official visit to the United Arab Emirates by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers (28 January-5 February 2014), http://www.ohchr.org/en/newsevents/pages/displaynews.aspx?newsid=14223&langid=e 2 Amnesty International, UAE: Ruthless crackdown on dissent exposes 'ugly reality' beneath façade of glitz and glamour, https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2014/11/uae-ruthless-crackdown-dissent-exposes-ugly-reality-beneath-fa-ade-glitz-andglamour/ 3
collective action such as strikes or sit-ins are liable to arrest and deportation. Domestic workers, mostly women from Asia, face physical violence, confinement to places of work and labor abuses, but are excluded even from the limited protections of the Labor Law. The authorities have yet to enact a draft law on domestic workers that has been under their consideration since at least 2012. During your meeting with the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Amnesty International urges you to champion the following specific human rights reforms: Immediately and unconditionally release Dr Mohammed al-roken and Dr Hadef al- Owais, and all other individuals imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association; Respect, protect, and promote the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and ensure that no-one in the UAE is detained or imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of these and other rights; Prohibit the practice of enforced disappearance and secret detention, which are themselves unlawful and also facilitate torture and other ill-treatment by security bodies; take effective measures to prevent and punish torture and other ill-treatment, including by ensuring that all complaints or allegations of torture and other illtreatment are impartially, promptly, and thoroughly investigated, and prosecute suspected perpetrators in proceedings that adhere to international fair trial standards; Ensure that all trials meet international fair trial standards, including by guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary; urgently amend the law relating to the State Security Branch of the Federal Supreme Court in order to institute a right of appeal to a higher judicial tribunal; Ensure that human rights defenders in the UAE, including Dr Mohammed al-roken and Dr Hadef al-owais, are able to carry out their peaceful professional work representing their clients without fear of harassment and reprisals by your government, and take concrete steps to ensure that they are protected in accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and that the principles contained in the Declaration are fully incorporated into national law; Remove the requirements in the Labor Law for foreign nationals to obtain the permission of their current employer before moving jobs or leaving the country. Ensure that all workers including domestic workers have their labor rights protected by law. Become a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocols. The UAE authorities have made major efforts to depict their clampdown on peaceful dissent as a measured response to a serious and imminent threat to the country s security. The international community, including the US government, has preferred to turn a blind eye to this repressive undercurrent that has now taken hold in the UAE, rather than to speak out on behalf of its victims and the values that international human rights law proclaims and represents. 4
You can play a crucial role in convincing Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the UAE government to reform laws and practices to stop ongoing human rights violations, and I urge you to do so during your meeting on Monday. The UAE is an important partner of the USA in regional affairs, but it is also incumbent that you take a critical look at the country s human rights record and recommend fundamental reforms that would end longstanding violations against UAE citizens and migrant workers. Sincerely, Steven W. Hawkins Executive Director Amnesty International USA 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 500 Washington DC 20003 5