The Americans Democracy and Human Rights website in Bahrain considered the United Arab Emirates a despotic police state, where the laws of censoring the media and spying on citizens are widespread. The ambiguity of its laws also allows rulers to justify their crushing of dissidents and silence critics of the government. Impunity has become an endemic epidemic in the Emirates, due to the widespread culture of exemption from accountability at the highest levels of government.
The site points to one of these practices, which is the "scandal" that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, the Prime Minister and Vice President, was subjected to after he sent threats to his former wife, Princess Haya, which prompted the British court to issue a decision to secure special protection for her and her children, according to Site.
Systematic torture
The human rights website states that torture in the UAE is used systematically in detention centers to extract confessions and testimonies from detainees, without any accountability for those who practice it.
He says that the record of torture in the UAE confirms that the government uses these methods against everyone it considers a threat, and the threat here usually includes human rights defenders, political opponents, religious figures, and journalists.
The UAE, in its endeavor to eliminate any dissenting voice, allows members of the security services to enjoy unlimited powers to punish the families of activists, whether they are imprisoned or live abroad.
The site also indicates the suffering of British researcher Matthew Hedges, who was charged with espionage and thrown into the Emirates prisons for six months. This researcher was subjected to inhuman detention conditions, as well as beatings and rape, and also mentioned that one of the prisoners told him, "Be careful, the British prisoners are dying here."
The site believes that the UAE, despite all these violations, continues its practices without fear of any consequences in its relationship with other countries. In this case, for example, everyone might expect that London will review its distinguished relationship with Abu Dhabi, but this did not happen, as Britain continues to encourage businessmen to invest in Emirati companies, despite the fact that the judicial conditions in this country make investing in it a great risk. Britain also continues to cooperate with the UAE in the field of arms sales despite the inhuman treatment this British citizen has been subjected to.
| In 2019, the UAE represented the largest US arms export market in the Middle East and North Africa (Getty Images) |
The site states that Britain is not the only country that condones the culture of human rights violations prevalent in the Emirates, but that the United States also refuses to review its economic relations with this country. In May 2019, the administration of US President Donald Trump agreed to sell a new $ 8 billion in arms shipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as part of an urgent deal aimed at supporting Washington's allies in the region.
This deal took place despite the fact that the UAE used torture against detainees, and supplied Al-Qaeda groups with American weapons, and these weapons were also used to purchase the loyalty of militias known to have committed human rights violations.
The site adds that in 2019 the UAE represented the largest market for US arms exports in the Middle East and North Africa, with more than a thousand American companies operating in the country. Also, many other companies benefit from the logistics and transportation networks in the Emirates, and use their lands as a main hub for conducting their business in the Middle East and North Africa and parts of Asia.
| The torture record in the UAE confirms that the government uses these methods against all those it considers a threat (Getty Images) |
The site says that one of the most important factors that affect countries ’dealings with the Emirates and allow them to continue violating international laws and human rights treaties is sovereign investment funds.
These funds made Emiratis become one of the most important investors in European and Asian countries and in North America, with a total investment value between 589 and 773 billion dollars, in addition to its commercial relations with the five permanent members of the Security Council (Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States), which are countries that play A crucial role in the international arena.
These economic relations are still continuing despite the numerous reports and condemnations issued by the institutions of the United Nations and the European Parliament. For example, a group of human rights experts at the United Nations last March issued an invitation to the UAE authorities to conduct investigations and improvements in conditions of detention amounting to torture, and methods of treatment of prisoners inhuman and inhumane.
In 2018, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the UAE to stop all forms of restrictions and lift the travel ban imposed on human rights activists, and to allow these people to exercise their legal rights activities inside and outside the country without fear of reprisal.
Enforced disappearance policy
The site indicates that the policy of enforced disappearance and torture extended from the UAE lands to Yemen, where the Saudi-Emirati intervention caused thousands of civilian casualties, committed many crimes against humanity and war crimes, and caused what the United Nations described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Thus, the system of impunity has bypassed Emirati civilian victims, to also include civilians from other countries, and the UAE becomes involved in cross-country liquidation operations, in the words of the human rights website.