12th Anniversary of UAE Reform Petition

Today, March 3rd, marks the 12th anniversary of the 2011 petition calling for democratic reform in the UAE, which led to the arbitrary arrests and unjust persecution of dozens of political activists and peaceful government critics, purely for signing the petition.

The petition called for elections, an independent judiciary and more legislative powers for the Federal National Council. Despite the 133-high-profile Emiratis including former government officials, journalists, lawyers, and activists who signed the petition in the midst of the Arab Spring, the petition was met with harsh measures by the authorities. Many of the signatories were arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared and sentenced to between 7 and 15 years in prison in a widely condemned case known as the “UAE94” trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the government, a charge which they denied. 

At the time of the trial which began in March 2013, most defendants had been held for months, some for up to a year, in secret detention facilities with little or no access to the outside world and with no access to legal counsel. Many told the court during the trial that they had been tortured or otherwise ill-treated in pre-trial secret detention but the presiding judge failed to order an independent investigation into these allegations. 

In stark contrast to the tolerant, open and modern image the UAE government portrays to the outside world, the UAE has become a country where there is no tolerance for the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and political dissent. The Emirati security services have cracked down on civil society to such an extent that, today, ten years on, there is virtually no free speech and civic space left to speak of.