The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is known for its luxury and modernity, but behind this polished facade lies a dark truth of human rights breaches and government-backed whitewashing. From holding international occasions like the 2021 EXPO or the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix to funding Think tanks and lobbying in the West to secure economic and political leverages – the UAE has utilised different methods to overshadow its repressive authority.
In 2018 a publication closer to the joke, entitled ‘Improving Access to Justice for Workers: The Case of the UAE’ was published by the Geneva Center for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue.
According to the Center, UAE was selected as a case study for this review because the country has the highest proportion of international migrants in the world and the country has recently enforced numerous innovative measures to improve access to justice for migrant workers.
The Centre highlighted the methods introduced by the UAE authorities to enhance the legal empowerment of foreign workers while ignoring the fact that they generally lack the rights associated with citizenship and face a variety of restrictions on their rights as workers. There are reports of undocumented Emiratis who, because of their incapability to be identified as full citizens, obtain no government benefits and have no labour rights. These stateless Emiratis – also named bidun – either relocated to the UAE before independence or were natives who failed to register as citizens. In addition, there are various happenings where local individuals have ill-treated people from overseas, just based on nationality or race.
The Geneva Centre is a think tank begun in 2013 with its headquarters in Geneva. The Centre claims to be dedicated to the advancement of a universal, value-driven human rights system, anchored in the principles of equity, non-discrimination, inclusiveness and solidarity. Umesh Palwankar, a national of Switzerland serves as Executive Director of Center.
In reality, the centre is dedicated solely to praising the UAE without any concrete evidence, encouraging its authoritative leadership, highlighting the reforms the UAE has implemented that are not practical, and ignoring the grave human rights violations in the country. There are also suspicions that the centre has been receiving significant amounts of funding from the UAE.
In one prominent example that recently occurred, the centre published an opinion ‘COP 28: What gains for environmental rights?’ regarding COP28, which was hosted by the UAE. In this piece, the centre highlighted that the UAE fueled many hopes regarding climate change and took some steps forward. The centre also stressed that the UAE’s Presidency of COP28 presented a novel package of declarations, presenting many topics long ignored by the high-profile conference. Among them ‘The COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health’ seeks to place health at the heart of climate action and rev the development of climate resilient, sustainable and equitable health strategies.
The report ignores that the UAE is one of the world’s biggest polluters among oil-rich nations, contributing to climate harm by extracting more oil. Moreover, migrant workers from Africa and Asia were working in extremely hot and humid conditions to prepare the facilities for the COP28 conference in the UAE. In September 2023, they were exposed to extreme climate with temperatures striking 42C(107F), despite a “midday ban.”
The leadership of the centre is also not hesitant to allegedly praise the UAE and its initiatives. In 2018, Dr Hanif Al Qassim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights, made the statement during his speech on behalf of the Centre for the annual “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” on 21st March, where he hailed the UAE’s pioneering efforts and that of its leadership to advance the values of tolerance, solidarity and co-operation among various nationalities and beliefs, as well as respect for their ideologies, whether they are citizens or members of international communities while claiming that the UAE’s establishment of the Ministry of Tolerance is part of these steps.
In another instance on 19th October 2017 Dr Hanif Hassan Al Qasim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue, affirmed that the UAE offers a model to follow in co-existence, pluralism and tolerance. He emphasised the fact that the UAE has become an oasis and an ideal environment for human co-existence and pluralism due to its policies established on the foundations set by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
On the other hand, intolerance in the UAE manifests in various forms. The migrant workers often face discrimination, limited rights, and harsh working conditions, leading to a perception of inequality. Religious intolerance is another critical issue in the UAE. Moreover, political dissent is met with strict measures in the UAE, contributing to an atmosphere of intolerance toward differing viewpoints
Hence, the Geneva Centre, claiming to be dedicated to the advancement of a universal, value-driven human rights approach, completely ignores that human rights in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are substantially restricted. The UAE does not have democratically elected institutions and citizens do not have the right to choose their government or form political groups. Activists and academics who condemn the government are detained and jailed, and their families are often victimised by the state security apparatus. The government denies freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the local media are censored to stop criticism of the government, government officials or royal families. As a result, the UAE routinely ranks near the bottom of many international efforts for human rights and press freedom.
