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More than a dozen human rights groups have called on the UAE to adopt the recommendations of the UN Committee against Torture. The Gulf state is accused of failing to comply with the United Nations Convention against Torture, which it ratified in 2012.
Survivors of torture at the hands of UAE security forces openly share their experiences at a recent press conference [Getty]
This United Arab Emirates All recommendations of the committee must be adopted United Nations Committee against Torture To protect individuals from torture and ill-treatment in the Gulf state, a group of NGOs said in a joint statement released Saturday.
Middle East and North Africa Human rights groups and more than a dozen others including Democracy Now in the Arab World (DAWN) say the UAE government has so far failed to comply with the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT), which it ratified in 2012.
Joint statement accuses UAE of ‘widespread’ State-sanctioned abuse It also stressed that the recommendations of the UN committee charged with investigating non-implemented UNCAT provisions must be enshrined in law and followed.
“To date, UAE law has not criminalized torture in a manner that is fully consistent with the Convention,” reads a statement sent to it by the MENA Human Rights Organization. New Arab.
“The UAE legal system does not provide adequate safeguards against torture of detainees and, in fact, even existing legal safeguards are not respected,” it said.
NGOs say UAE law allows the use of torment.
They said “effective measures” were needed to ensure that all detainees could exercise their full rights, such as access to legal representation and the opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of detention.
Their statement also challenged the current climate of impunity in the UAE, saying abusers must be prosecuted and punished promptly and the “rules governing the national security apparatus” must be transparent.
Hamad Al Shamsi is the Executive Director of the UAE Detainee Advocacy Centre (EDAC).
“Everyone knows that the goal of the UAE signing [the UN Convention against Torture] Just to polish its international image,” he told new arab.
Shamsi is part of it UAE 94, A group of academics, activists, academics and human rights defenders has faced a mass trial after signing a petition calling for democratic reforms.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on vague security charges and was later placed on the government’s terror list. He is now in exile in Turkey.
“The lack of international attention not only allowed the UAE to get away with [not implementing the recommendations] But it also allows it to be a member of the UN Human Rights Council, as well as Emirati officials responsible for torture like Ahmed Naser Al Raisi [to become head of Interpol],” He says.
Continued abuses, he said, “confirm that for many countries, human rights are still just a slogan and interests are the masters of state action”.
Ultimately, the UAE’s implementation of the UN convention is optional, but pressure from the US, Canada and Western European countries is the best way to ensure compliance by the UAE, he added.
A report published in June, co-authored by the MENA Rights Group and EDAC, concluded that “torture is widespread” and “often goes unpunished” in the UAE.
In a joint statement, 14 international human rights bodies confirmed the continued practice of torture, ill-treatment and degrading detainees in the UAE and called for significant changes to laws and practices #anti-torture State prison and called on UAE authorities to fully comply with the requirements #convention against torture i signed pic.twitter.com/jMTsVWkVpI
— Emirates Centre for Detainee Rights (@EDAC_Rights) August 12, 2022
Opposition voices are “silenced” [the UAE] legal framework” to combat any form of government criticism, “torture is often used against peaceful dissidentaccording to the report.
This includes incidents such as prolonged solidarity imprisonment, denial of appeal or access to lawyers, beatings, ritual humiliation and forced confessions.
The biggest culprit is the state security agency, which holds people for months in secret facilities, where torture is allegedly used extensively.
Matthew Hedges, He was doing doctoral research in the UAE when he was detained in 2018, held in solitary confinement and interrogated by state security agents for months, sometimes for up to 15 hours at a time.
At a press conference at the Press Club in Geneva last month, Hedges spoke out against the “systematic” abuse of power by the UAE.
“It’s not just something that happened randomly, it was a mistake. No, it’s part of the DNA of the structure designed to keep power centralized,” he said.
Hedge talking by the side Ali Issa Ahmed, A British and Sudanese national has been arrested while watching a football match in the UAE. Ahmed said he was physically attacked by security forces and was not allowed to eat, drink, sleep or contact his family while in custody.
The UAE rejects testimony from Hedges and Ahmed.
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