Rights group slams UAE culture of ‘impunity’

A US-based Gulf rights group has slammed the culture of ‘impunity’ that it says allows human rights abuses in the UAE to take place.

The report by Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) accuses the UAE of instituting an autocratic police state through the use of widespread censorship laws and its surveillance infrastructure. 

According to the rights group, tactics used by Emirati authorities to stifle dissent include the censorship of critical reporting on the royal families that rule each emirate and through direct initmidation of dissidents through the use of torture and other forms of persecution.

“(The UAE government) has an extensive history of using torture against those they perceive as a threat; this ‘threat’ most commonly includes human rights defenders, political opposition, religious figures, and journalists,” ADHRB said, further accusing the authorities of punishing families of activists who are either detained or live in self-exile abroad.

“The UAE’s police state not only punishes those who peacefully dissent, but harasses and abuses even those related to them, with their intolerance for criticism reaching comical proportions.”

Human rights groups have long criticised Abu Dhabi for its absolute intolerance of dissent from both local and foreign activists.