The UAE State Security Agency: An Authority Responsible for Constant Repression

In the United Arab Emirates, there is a state authority that constantly abuses and restricts human rights. This is the State Security Agency (SSA), founded in 1974 by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The main purpose of this agency is to deal with state security issues. Over time, however, it has been used to[…]

Profile in Persecution: Hasan Moosa Jaafar Ali

Updated: Hasan Moosa Jaafar Ali was a 16-year-old Bahraini student with learning disabilities when he was arrested for the first time without a warrant on 23 September 2013. During his detention, he endured torture, enforced disappearance, solitary confinement, denial of attorney access, isolation, reprisals, religious discrimination, and medical neglect. He was sentenced to a total[…]

Persistent UAE´s efforts to maintain critics behind bars: a new mass trial

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has invested deeply into portraying itself as a progressive, tolerant and human rights-compliant state. This strategy, however, as in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, clashes with a reality in which activists and dissidents are detained and tried for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association. The recent[…]

Unveiling the Shocking Reality: UAE’s Sham Trial Amid COP28 Exposes Human Rights Contempt

The Emirati authorities’ commencement of a mass trial involving over 80 Emiratis, including prominent human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, has sent shockwaves globally. The trial coinciding with COP28, billed as the ‘most inclusive COP ever,’ reflects the UAE’s blatant disregard for human rights and its unwillingness to address the dire state of rights[…]

Profile in Persecution: Ali Fadhel Abbas

Updated: Ali Fadhel Abbas, a 21-year-old garage worker, was arbitrarily arrested in 2019 at Bahrain International Airport upon returning from Iraq, where he visited the shrine of Imam Husain on the 40th day of his martyrdom. During his detention, he endured torture, forced disappearance, and medical neglect. Currently, he is held at Jau prison, serving[…]