#FreeAhmed: Mary Robinson pulls out of Dubai Lit Fest in response to ICFUAE open letter

ICFUAE launched an open letter today (published below) calling on the UAE government to release Ahmed Mansoor. This comes ahead of the Dubai Literature Festival, which is due to take place from March 1 - 9. The letter was signed by a host of notable signatures, including Stephen Fry, Noam Chomsky and PEN International, and was published in the Guardian this morning. In response the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, announced that she would be pulling out of the festival.  In an email to the Guardian, her office said:

“In response to the open letter received by the Guardian, Mrs Robinson has advised the organisers that she will not be attending the literature festival.”

We would like to thank Mary Robinson for her principled stand against human rights abuses in the UAE.  

ICFUAE's open letter

We, the undersigned, call on the Government of the United Arab Emirates to immediately and unconditionally release prisoner of conscience Mr. Ahmed Mansoor.

Mr. Mansoor is an internationally acclaimed human rights campaigner, the 2015 winner of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders and a member of both the advisory committee of Human Rights Watch and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. In May 2018, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for “defaming” the UAE on social media. An appeal to overturn this sentence was rejected on 31 December 2018. Mr. Mansoor’s arrest and the charges against him relate solely to the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression.

Mr. Mansoor was detained without charge for over a year before trial and denied the right to appoint an independent lawyer. Sources close to him confirmed that he was held in solitary confinement for at least the first six months of his detention, a treatment human rights experts consider to be cruel and inhumane.

The EU Parliament and multiple human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have repeatedly called for Mr. Mansoor’s release and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described his case as “a direct attack on the legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE”.

As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the UAE has an obligation to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights for all its citizens. We call on the UAE government to uphold this obligation with respect to Mr. Mansoor by ensuring his immediate and unconditional release.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Fry, Actor and Writer  

Noam Chomsky, Professor

Michael Mansfield QC, Barrister

Peter Tatchell, Human Rights Campaigner

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion

Ben Bradshaw, MP for Exeter

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, MP for Brighton Kemptown

Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith

Martyn Day, MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk

Tom Brake, MP Carshalton and Wallington

Christine Jardine, MP for Edinburgh West

Joe Odell, The International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE

Carles Torner, PEN International

Gus Hosein, Privacy International

Julia Legner, MENA Rights Group

Radha Stirling, Detained in Dubai

Rachid Mesli, Al Karama

Safwa Aissa, International Campaign for Justice and Human Rights

Jonathan Emmett, Children's Author

James Mayhew, Author and Illustrator

Nicola Davies, Author

Amanda Craig, Author and critic

Laurence Anholt, Author

Anne Booth, Author

Dylan Calder, Director Pop-up Projects

Fadi Al-Qadi, Human Rights, Civil Society, Advocacy and Media Expert