Press Release: ICFUAE Remembers the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

On August 30th, human rights activists around the world marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. The ICFUAE remembered the victims in front of the Emirates Cable line in Greenwich, in an attempt to raise awareness of the ongoing human rights violations in the UAE.

Enforced disappearances have been used by the Emirati authorities to hold dissidents and activists in secret locations, without charges, without access to lawyers, and without fair trials. For example, the Al-Suwaidi sisters were forcibly disappeared after they tweeted about their brother, also a prisoner of conscience in the UAE. 

Enforced disappearances violate basic human rights and international law. According to the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearances, they constitute a crime against humanity (Article 5).

Human Rights Watch has urged the UAE government to reveal the names and locations of everyone who has been forcibly disappeared and who is being held in incommunicado detention.

This year, the ICFUAE remembers the victims of enforced disappearances and urges the UAE to respect human rights, release all political prisoners, end the use of torture and support the creation of an independent judiciary.

[1] You can read further reports about enforced disappearances in the UAE here: 

Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/11/uae-new-cases-disappearances 

International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights: http://www.icfr.info/en/wp-content/uploads/Enforced-disappearance-in-UAE.pdf 

Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/united-arab-emirates/report-united-arab-emirates/

International Centre for Justice and Human Rights: http://www.ic4jhr.org/en/activites/statements/19-uae-enforced-disappearances-continue.html