Open letter to the Emirati authorities to free human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor on his 50th birthday

Civil society organisations have called upon the UAE government to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, whose life they believe may be at risk following beatings and hunger strikes to protest deplorable and inhumane prison conditions.

This statement was originally published on gc4hr.org on 16 October 2019.

Your Excellency, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan,

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recently announced multiple projects promoting pluralism and tolerance both at home and abroad. 2019 has been declared the ‘Year of Tolerance’ and in 2020, Dubai will host the World Expo trade fair, under the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.’ Upon Dubai’s selection for this exhibition in 2013, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said: “[w]e renew our promise to astonish the world in 2020.” We welcome these public commitments to tolerance and open-mindedness.

It is in this same spirit that we, the undersigned, call upon the UAE government to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, whose life we believe may be at risk following beatings and hunger strikes to protest deplorable and inhumane prison conditions. The Authorities have convicted and imprisoned him solely for his human rights work and for exercising his right to freedom of expression, which is also protected under the UAE’s Constitution. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience.

Before his imprisonment, Mansoor was known as ‘the last human rights defender left in the UAE’ on account of his fearless work to document human rights violations in the country. His willingness to speak out publicly in defence of human rights on his blog, via social media and in interviews with international media was an example to us all. He is also an engineer, a poet, and a father of four. He is on the advisory boards of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and Human Rights Watch and was awarded the 2015 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

UAE authorities arrested Mansoor on 20 March 2017 at his home and subjected him to enforced and involuntary disappearance for over six months, with no access to a lawyer and sparse contact with his family, who did not know his exact whereabouts. The authorities held him in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time.

Shortly after his arrest, a group of United Nations human rights experts said that the UAE should release him immediately, describing his arrest as “a direct attack on the legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE.” They expressed fear that his arrest “may constitute an act of reprisal for his engagement with UN human rights mechanisms, for the views he expressed on social media, including Twitter.”

A year later, on 29 May 2018, Mansoor was sentenced under vague charges of “insulting the status and prestige of the UAE and its symbols, including its leaders”, “publishing false information to damage the UAE’s reputation abroad” and “portraying the UAE as a lawless land.” He received a sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of 1,000,000 UAE Dirhams (US$272,000), three years of probation after completion of his sentence, and confiscation of his electronic devices. On 31 December 2018, the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court upheld his conviction and sentence.

The UAE’s Government actions against Mansoor have been widely criticised. For instance, on 4 October 2018, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Mansoor’s “harassment, persecution and detention, and calling for his release.” In May 2019, after he ended a month-long hunger strike to protest his unjust conviction and his detention conditions in Al-Sadr prison, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs stated that his conditions of detention “violate[d] basic international human rights standards and risk[ed] taking an irrevocable toll on Mr Mansoor’s health.” In September 2019, Mansoor was severely beaten for continuing his protests and he undertook yet another hunger strike. Nevertheless, he continues to be held in an isolation cell with no running water or bed and is not permitted to leave his cell except for family visits.

In September 2019, the annual report of the UN Secretary General about reprisals against those who cooperate with the UN mechanisms cited Mansoor’s case. This was the fourth time that the Secretary General had denounced reprisals against him, having previously raised concerns in 2014, 2017 and 2018.

It is a tragedy and a disgrace for the UAE that this Tuesday, on 22 October of the UAE’s ‘Year of Tolerance’, Ahmed Mansoor will turn 50, alone in a prison cell in such deplorable conditions, simply for exercising his fundamental right to free speech and for speaking out against human rights violations.

Mansoor’s imprisonment is part of a larger and growing pattern of repression in the UAE. Since 2011, the authorities have embarked on an unprecedented campaign of repression on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in the country, shrinking the space for peaceful dissent to near-obliteration. Authorities have used privately manufactured technologies, such as those made by NSO Group, for the unlawful targeted surveillance of human rights defenders, including Mansoor, in order to monitor and clamp down on dissent. The authorities have arrested, detained, and prosecuted activists, human rights defenders and other critics of the government, including prominent lawyers, judges and academics, on broad and sweeping national security-related or cybercrime charges and in proceedings that fail to meet international fair trial standards.

The UAE has publicly declared itself a champion of tolerance in the Middle East and the world. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it has an obligation to protect the rights of its citizens and residents. For this reason, we call upon the UAE government to uphold these principles, and to release Ahmed Mansoor without further delay.

Yours sincerely,

1. 1. A Common Future, Cameroon
   2. Abraham’s Children Foundation, Nigeria
   3. ACAPE BURUNDI
   4. ACAT-Belgium
   5. ACAT-France
   6. ACAT-Germany – Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture
   7. ACAT-Liberia
   8. ACAT-Switzerland
   9. Access Center for Human Rights, France
   10. Access Now
   11. Accountability lab Niger
   12. African Monitoring Observatory on Climate, Waters, Earth, and Cultures (AMOClimWEC), Benin
   13. American Association of University Professors – New York University Chapter
   14. American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
   15. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
   16. Amis des Etrangers au Togo (ADET)
   17. Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, Jordan
   18. Amnesty International
   19. Angels in the Field, India
   20. Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
   21. ARTICLE 19
   22. Asociación de Tecnología, Educación, Desarrollo, Investigación, Comunicación (TEDIC), Paraguay
   23. Association de defense des libertas individuelles, Tunisia
   24. Association For Promotion Sustainable Development, India
   25. Association for Victims of Torture in UAE, Switzerland
   26. Badhon Manob Unnayan Sangstha, Bangladesh
   27. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
   28. Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine
   29. Center for Innovative and Pragmatic Development Initiative (CIPDI)
   30. Centre d’Appui a l’Education et au Developpement Communautaire (CEDECO), Democratic Republic of the Congo
   31. Centre for Social Mobilization and Sustainable Development, Ghana
   32. Centro de Estudios y apoyo al desarrollo Local, Bolivia
   33. CIVICUS
   34. Comision Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, Dominican Republic
   35. Committee for the Respect of Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia
   36. Community Initiative for Social Empowerment – CISE Malawi
   37. Community Uplift and Welfare Development-CUWEDE, Uganda
   38. Conacce Chaplains, Colombia
   39. Construisons Ensemble le Monde, Democratic Republic of the Congo
   40. Coordination Maghrébine des Organisations des Droits Humains, Morocco
   41. Daniel Iroegbu Global Health Foundation, Nigeria
   42. Educating Girls and Young Women for Development, Zambia
   43. English PEN
   44. Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM)
   45. European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
   46. FINESTE, Haiti
   47. Fraternity Foundation for Human Rights, Germany
   48. Freedom Forum, Nepal
   49. Freedom Now, Morocco
   50. Front Line Defenders
   51. Fundacion CELTA, Venezuela
   52. Fundación Regional de Asesoría en Derechos Humanos (INREDH), Ecuador
   53. Fundacion TEA Trabajo Educacion Ambiente, Argentina
   54. Future Leaders Network Gambia Chapter, Gambia
   55. Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties, Switzerland
   56. Global Learning for Sustainability, Uganda
   57. Global Participe, Congo
   58. Global Vision     Democratic Republic of the Congo
   59. Global Youth on the Quest for Developmental Networking, Gambia
   60. Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
   61. Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (GIDHR), Australia
   62. HOPE Worldwide-Pakistan
   63. Human Rights Defenders Network- ACPDH, Burundi
   64. Human Rights First
   65. Human Rights Foundation
   66. Human Rights Watch
   67. Humena for Human Rights and Civic Engagement, Egypt
   68. Hunger Reduction International, Somalia
   69. IFEX
   70. Innovation for Change – Middle East and North Africa
   71. International Campaign for Freedom in the United Arab Emirates (ICFUAE)
   72. International Center for Supporting Rights and Freedoms, Switzerland
   73. International Centre for Justice and Human Rights, Switzerland
   74. International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
   75. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
   76. International Legal Initiative, Kazakhstan
   77. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
   78. International Youth Alliance for Peace, Sri Lanka
   79. Iraqi Network for Social Media (INSM)
   80. Jeunesse Assistance, Niger
   81. Justice Acess Point, Uganda
   82. Kaimbu Sex Workers Association, Kenya
   83. Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
   84. Legal Clinic Adilet, Kyrgyzstan
   85. Liberia Freedom of Information Coalition
   86. Ligue Burundaise pour les Droits de la Femme
   87. Maharat Foundation, Lebanon
   88. Martin Ennals Foundation
   89. MENA Rights Group
   90. Middle East Studies Association of North America
   91. Most at Risk Populations in Uganda (MARPS)
   92. National Campaing for Sustainable Development, Nepal
   93. National Sudanese Women Association
   94. Norwegian PEN
   95. Omani Association for Human Rights
   96. Organisation Marocaine des Droits Humains (OMDH), Morocco
   97. Pakistan NGOs Forum
   98. Palestinian Center for Communication and Development Strategies, Palestine
   99. Participatory Research Action Network-PRAN, Bangladesh
   100. PEN America
   101. PEN Canada
   102. PEN International
   103. PEN Iraq
   104. Plateforme d’Autonomisation des organisations de jeunesses de Côte d’ivoire (Paojci)
   105. Promo-LEX Association, Moldova
   106. Qurium Media Foundation, Sweden
   107. Reconciliation and Development Agency, Cameroon
   108. Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
   109. Resilient Youth for Change, Zambia
   110. Rights Realization Centre
   111. Rise Initiative for Human Advocacy, South Sudan
   112. Rotel Foundation for Social Development, Nigeria
   113. Rukiga Forum for Development (RUFODE), Uganda
   114. Rural Development Foundation, Pakistan
   115. Salam for Democracy and Human Rights
   116. Scholars at Risk
   117. Sentinel for Human Rights
   118. Sierra Leone School Green Clubs
   119. Society for Rural Women and Youth Development, Nigeria
   120. SPEDYA-Africa Togo
   121. Street Children Empowerment Foundation, Ghana
   122. Sukaar Welfare Organization – Pakistan
   123. Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
   124. Terres des Jeunes Togo
   125. TRIO Uganda
   126. Tunisian Association For Supporting Minority Rights
   127. Tunisian League of Defending Human Rights
   128. Union des Frères pour Alternatif de Développement Intégré (UFADI), Haiti
   129. Urnammu for Justice and Human Rights, Canada
   130. Veritas Collective Foundation, Pakistan
   131. Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State, Tunisia
   132. Vijana Hope, Democratic Republic of the Congo
   133. Volunteers Welfare for Community Based Care of Zambia
   134. Wales PEN Cymru
   135. Women’s March Global
   136. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
   137. Young Men Association, Botswana
   138. Youth Action for Relentless Development Organization, Sierra Leone
   139. Youth Advocacy Nepal
   140. Youth for the Mission – Jamaica
   141. Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana
   142. YOUTHAID-LIBERIA