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 countrys 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 faade 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 UAEs 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.

END UNFAIR TRIALS

The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers has described the
UAEs 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 Universitys 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

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
1

Amnesty International, UAE: Ruthless crackdown on dissent exposes 'ugly reality' beneath faade 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/
2

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 alOwais, 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 countrys 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 countrys
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