Will abuses really be exposed in Dubai’s human rights film competition?

Will abuses really be exposed in Dubai’s human rights film competition?

The Community Development Authority in Dubai launched a competition for student to submit films on human rights, with reference to children rights.

The CDA’s competition is launched just weeks after a report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said that it was concerned about the treatment of human rights defenders in the UAE, including their families and their children.

This competition has been launched to give a voice to human rights concerns for Emirati students in an increasingly repressive environment, where human rights are being routinely ignored and defenders and activists have been silenced by detention and disappearance.

The CDA competition will likely not expose the human rights abuses prevalent in the host emirate of Dubai and given the crackdown on free speech in the UAE, which has intensified in the last few years, will be unable to freely explore human rights abuses. In a country which has been widely criticised by NGOs and the UN for its lack of respect for human rights it is somewhat ironic that it will now play host to a human rights film competition.

As and when the competition goes ahead it is hoped that the films that are submitted are unencumbered by state censorship and can explore the very real problems of human rights abuses and the challenges facing children..

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