Is UAE trying to wear masks as to promote human rights policies ?

CAIRO, 20th July, 2016 -- A UAE delegation attended a meeting of the Arab Permanent Committee for Human Rights (APCHR), held in Cairo today.

The delegation included Mubarak Al Hammadi, representing the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Intenational Cooperation, and Ahmed Al Mansouri, a diplomatic attache at the ministry.

Such act was described as contradictory , For many have reproached the UAE of it only attempting to wear masks as to persuade people of its so-called pro human rights policies while perpetually absusing at the same time its human rights defenders.

Few facts are to be taken note of: on March 14th 2016, Marwan Mohammad Atiq bin Sufyan, an Emirati blogger, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 1 million AED by the UAE High Federal Court for “insulting the state and damaging its reputation.” Twitter users who express criticism of the government are subject to detention and imprisonment by security forces as well. Emirati security forces arrested Osama Najjar, a human rights activist, on 17 March 2016 on charges of “instigating hatred against the state via twitter” and “spreading lies” about the torture of his father, Hussain Najjar. Hussain Najjar is one of the UAE94, a group of 94 activists prosecuted in mass by the Emirati government, and is currentlyserving an 11-year jail term for his political activism.

It is also important to note that the UAE has a long record of torturing detainees and abducting people for unknown reasons on top of denying them basic rights of going through a fair trial.