Geneva, 6 July 2018
On 29 June 2018, at the 38th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the outcome of the UAE’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was adopted
Out of 232 recommendations made by States in January 2018, 100 were rejected. Ahmad Abdulrahman Al-Jarman, Assistant Minister for Human Rights and International Law at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, said his country would work on them in the next four and a half years and added that a National Commission will be created taking into account the Paris Principles to establish a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI).
The country has also refrained from sending a standing invitation to the United Nations Special Procedures or Special Rapporteurs related to the most serious violations in the country, such as the Special Rapporteur on torture, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. It is important to recall that eight special procedures visit requests are currently pending and awaiting a reply from the Government.
Moreover, despite numerous recommendations made during the UPR, it is of concern that the country doesn’t seem inclined to put an end to the systematic practice of torture, as it has still not agreed to sign and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).
The United Arab Emirates refuses to implement a national strategy to prevent and eliminate this practice, including by investigating such acts; prosecuting instigators and perpetrators and prohibiting the practice of arbitrary and secret detention. As a consequence, the security services controlled by the authorities continue to torture, with total impunity, national and foreign citizens, political opponents and human rights defenders arbitrarily detained.
Until then, the UAE haven’t respected their promises made during the last UPR, in 2013, and the country’s civil society, the victims and their families express serious doubts about the commitments of the authorities on the ground.
AVT-UAE remains concerned that many recommendations on international standards have been rejected and calls the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to respect its commitments, to put an end to torture within its territory and to prosecute instigators and authors.
