section_path: Government and politics/Human rights
section_name: Human rights
paragraph_text: Human rights
  
  The state security apparatus in the UAE has been accused of human rights abuses including forced disappearance, arbitrary arrests and torture. The annual Freedom House report on Freedom in the World has listed the United Arab Emirates as "Not Free" every year since 1999, the first year for which records are available on their website. Freedom of association is also severely curtailed. Associations and NGOs are required to register with the government; however twenty non-political groups were reportedly operating in the country without registration. All associations have to be submitted to censorship guidelines and all publications have first to be approved by the government. In its 2013 Annual Report, Amnesty International criticized the UAE's poor record on human rights issues; highlighting restrictions of freedom of speech and assembly, the use of arbitrary arrest and torture, and the use of the death penalty.
  
  The UAE has escaped the Arab Spring; and since 2011, human rights organizations claim that the government has increasingly carried out forced disappearances. The Arab Organization for Human Rights obtained testimonies from defendants who claimed being kidnapped, tortured and abused in detention centres; they reported 16 methods of torture including beatings, threats with electrocution and denial of medical care. Repressive measures, including deportation, were applied on foreigners based on allegations of attempts to destabilize the country. The issue of sexual abuse among female domestic workers is another area of concern, particularly given that domestic servants are not covered by the UAE labour law of 1980 or the draft labour law of 2007. Worker protests have been suppressed and protesters imprisoned without due process.
  
  Amnesty International reported that Qatari men have been abducted by the UAE government and allegedly withheld information about the men's fate from their families. According to some organizations, over 4,000 Shia expatriates have been deported from the UAE; including Lebanese Shia families for their alleged sympathies for Hezbollah. In 2013, 94 Emirati activists were held in secret detention centres and put on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government; a relative of a defendant was arrested for tweeting about the trial, and sentenced to 10 months in jail. The latest forced disappearance involves three sisters from Abu Dhabi.
  
  Sara Jacobs held foreign actors, including the UAE, responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She expressed her views in March 2024 visit to the refugee camps, stating the children in Sudan are living with extensive trauma. The US representative also claimed that the war could be quickly ended if the involvement of countries like the UAE is stopped. Jacobs also said that the US is morally obligated to take measures and stop the arms to the Emirates, until the UAE stops providing weapons to the RSF.
  
  On 29 March 2024, Sudan filed a 78-page formal complaint with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), accusing the UAE of planning and backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militias' against the Sudanese army. The Emirates was allegedly taking assistance from Chad, which acted as a channel for military supplies and mercenaries to reach RSF in Sudan. Human rights organizations pointed out that Sudan's conflict was among the "world's worst humanitarian crisis", while foreign nations like the UAE continued to supply weapons and equipment to the warring parties. Reports also revealed that the Emirates claimed of carrying out a humanitarian campaign to provide aid for Sudanese people. In fact, it was expanding a covert operation of funneling weapons, money and even powerful drones for the militias in Sudan. Officials said the UAE was playing the most consequential role by inflaming the crisis, while pledging to ease it. In October 2024, Sudan wrote a second official letter to the UNSC, calling for it to take strong action against the UAE's continued aggression towards Sudan. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry also claimed that the UAE is not just an indirect supporter of RSF, but rather a "vicious frontline player in the war of aggression" against Sudan.
  
  In December 2024, ECDHR highlighted UAE's human rights issues and absence of judicial independence, mainly focusing on unfair trials leading defendants to face barbaric detention conditions. Such trials are often held in secrecy and the defendants' lawyers are neglected from accessing case files and court documents. The UAE's 2014 Counter-Terrorism Law is used to enforce travel bans, life imprisonment and even death penalty for peaceful critics of the regime and those managing an organization. ECDHR stated that the UAE's counterterrorism law represses freedom of expression and called for the Emirati government to amend it. Pointing that the country's judicial system requires more transparency and independence, the rights organization said that an independent committee must be set up to review all allegations of torture, incommunicado detention, and unfair trials.
  
  In January 2025, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report highlighting the human rights abuses committed by the UAE in 2024, majorly focusing on the unfair mass trial. It pointed out to the case involving multiple significant violations, where 44 individuals who were part of “UAE94” were unjustly convicted and sentenced on terrorism-related charges. HRW criticized the UAE's use of Federal Penal Code and the Cybercrime Law to silence government critics, journalists, dissidents and activists, while restricting their freedom of expression. In July 2024, Emirati authorities sentenced 57 Bangladeshi to life imprisonment, over protests in the UAE against their home government. The report accused the UAE of whitewashing its image by hosting major global events like COP28, which faced criticism for its ongoing contribution to fossil fuel production and human rights violations. It also raised concerns about the UAE's role in arming and supporting RSF in the conflict in Sudan, meanwhile violating the UN arms embargo. HRW urged the UNSC to renew and enforce the Sudan 1591 sanctions, and to impose sanctions on violators, including those in the UAE.