British shadow minister raises concerns over UAE’s human rights violations

The British British Shadow Minister Andy Slaughter MP raised concerns over human rights violations in the United Arab Emirates as the UK-UAE Year of Culture 2017 was launched earlier last month. 

Mr Slaughter asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Tobias Ellwood whether the UK Government plans to raise reports of human rights violations in the UAE during the 2017 UK-UAE Year of Culture.

Ellwood affirmed that issues related to human rights would be discussed between the two countries  at official and Ministerial level.

“Our close relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) allows us to discuss important issues such as Human Rights and where the UK has cause for concern we raise it at official and Ministerial level”, he said.

“The 2017 UK-UAE Year of Culture presents an excellent opportunity for strengthening and developing dialogue between our two countries”, he concluded.

The UAE has been widely criticised by numerous rights groups for violating basic and fundamental civil and political rights of individuals in the UAE.