UAE calls for protecting children, while stripping away their citizenship

Sharjah Ruler Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi and his wife attended on Thursday the Global Child Forum in Kuala Lumpur, an event held under the patronage and with the active participation of Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, and Queen Silvia.

During the event, Shaikh Sultan called for "legislation and policies to protect children and guarantee their human rights and appealed to give citizens of the future the best chance to realise their full potential."

This came only few month after the citizenship of five children of the political activist Abid al-Ka'abi was stripped away for their father's background.

Without official documents, al-Ka'abi's five children will be unable to gain access to basic services at home and travel overseas.

In a similar violation to child's rights, UAE authorities stripped away the nationality of three Emiratis who are the children of the political prisoner Mohammed Abdulrazzaq al-Siddiq, who was jailed for 10 years for allegedly plotting to overthrow the state, in a controversial 2013 trial of 94 political activists.

It is worth to mention that the youngest prisoner of conscience in the Arab world is held in UAE jails for a tweet published in her social networking site “Twitter” account.

Moza Mohammed Abdouly, 18, was arrested along with her sister Amina and their brother Mohammed Musab Abdouly in the evening of November 19, from the house in Fujairah emirate for writing some tweets to lament their father.