UN Condemns UAE’s Detention of Human Rights Defenders

Date: 11 June 2021 - 21:50

News ID: ۹۱۱۲۹

NEW YORK (Dispatches) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, has expressed her grave concern at the long-term detention of five human rights defenders in the United Arab Emirates, describing their imprisonment as arbitrary.
The five human rights activists, Mohamed Al-Mansoori, Hassan Hammad, Hadif Al-Owais, Ali Al-Kindi and Salim Al-Shahhi, are part of a group of 94 lawyers, human rights defenders and academics, called the “UAE94” group, who were sentenced to ten years in prison in July 2013 for plotting to overthrow the government.
In a statement published on Thursday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Lawlor said that their sentences were excessive and stressed that they should never have been detained for legitimately exercising the freedoms that all people are entitled to.
“There are worrying allegations that they are subjected to long periods in solitary confinement, which could amount to torture. Other allegations include authorities turning off the air conditioning as temperatures rose above 40°C, and windows being covered, preventing prisoners from seeing sunlight,” said Lawlor.
She added that their trials might have violated their right to a fair trial by denying their access to legal counsel.
The UN rapporteur called on Abu Dhabi to release the human rights defenders immediately in order to continue their meaningful and necessary human rights work.
The UAE government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UAE authorities have previously dismissed such accusations as false and unsubstantiated.
The U.S.-allied UAE, a Persian Gulf trading and tourism hub and big oil producer, does not allow political parties and shows little tolerance towards dissent. State and local media are tightly controlled and freedom of speech is restricted.
After the 2011 Arab Spring, it convicted dozens, many of them suspected of belonging to the Islah group, on charges of plotting to overthrow the government in a hearing criticized by rights groups.