UAE 'Commited' to Human Rights, Lambasts Repression Claims
The United Arab Emirates said Wednesday it was committed to improving the protection of human rights, criticizing as "one sided and inaccurate" accusations by Amnesty International that it engages in repression.
"The UAE will continue its work to strengthen the protection of human rights," the foreign ministry said, a day after the rights watchdog released a report entitled "There is no freedom here: Silencing dissent in the UAE."
In it, Amnesty spoke of a "climate of fear" and the "extreme lengths" taken by authorities to stamp out opposition or calls for reform.
The London-based watchdog said the UAE needs to implement "swift and concrete steps" to prove its commitment to protecting human rights.
Dozens of Emirati and Egyptian Islamists have been jailed for forming cells of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt, and accused of seeking to overthrow the Gulf monarchies.
Amnesty said more than 100 activists and government critics have been charged or jailed for politically motivated national security or cybercrime offences since 2011, and that more than 60 remain behind bars.
The ministry countered that the arrests cited in the report were the result of "thorough investigations," insisting that detainees were not part of peaceful associations calling for a political debate.
Instead, they were members of a group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and sought to "overthrow the UAE government," the statement said, insisting that "no state can simply stand idly by in the face of such a threat."
The menace posed by extremists is "too real," said the ministry, insisting that the UAE "represents an alternative vision of a stable, peaceful, moderate and modernizing society."
"The UAE has made impressive progress in developing its governance institutions and building a tolerant and multicultural society in which people of more than 200 different nationalities live harmoniously together."
Amnesty's report was published ahead of the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix to be held this weekend.
Deputy regional director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said "millions of spectators from across the world are expected to tune in" to watch the race, "yet most of them will have little clue about the ugly reality of life for activists in the UAE."
The UAE has not seen any of the widespread pro-reform protests that have swept other Arab countries since 2011, including fellow Gulf states Bahrain and Oman, but authorities have stepped up a crackdown on dissent and calls for democratic reform.
Source: Agence France Presse
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