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United Arab Emirates | End the crackdown and release all prisoners of conscience
The promotion and protection of human rights should be at the forefront of all world events. ISHR joins a coalition of NGOs in calling on participants of the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix 2018 to support a campaign for the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience held by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities.
In a letter written in collaboration with 8 NGOs*, ISHR urges drivers, teams and performers at the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix to leverage their celebrity platforms and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all critics and dissidents who have been detained for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression in the UAE.
The call to action is in response to the human rights situation in the country, where a crackdown to silence critics and dissidents has been in operation since 2011.
As highlighted by the coalition, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, academics and other critics have been harassed, arbitrarily detained, subjected to enforced disappearance, tortured and convicted without access to trials which meet international standards of fairness, with many currently serving lengthy prison sentences facilitated by repressive legislation.
‘For several years, the UAE has projected the global image of a glamourous, progressive and dynamic society. Starkly contradicting this, is the reality of the human rights situation on the ground’, says Salma El Hosseiny, Human Rights Council Advocate at ISHR.
‘A united call to action supported by participants of a high-profile event like the F1 Grand Prix is crucial to accentuating and hopefully eliminating this disparity’, El Hosseiny adds.
The coalition concludes by urging celebrities to tweet, post and speak out about the human rights violations in UAE to ensure that prisoners are not forgotten, outlining detailed cases of dissidents who constitute a small fraction of prisoners of conscience currently behind bars for exercising their right to freedom of expression and publicly promoting human rights. These prisoners include Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent human rights defender who has been the subject of previous ISHR campaigns.
The full letter, including the list of signatories, is available here.
Add your voice to the campaign and address the UAE authorities on twitter here.
*Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (ADHRB), Amnesty International, CIVICUS, FIDH, Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), Martin Ennals Foundation, Pen International, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).
Contact: Salma El Hosseiny at [email protected]
Photo: Martin Ennals Awards
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