IFEX joins rights groups calling on governments to address the UAE’s human rights abuses ahead of global climate negotiations.
This statement was originally published on freedomforward.org on 13 September 2023.
To the Participating Governments at the COP28 Climate Conference,
We write as a global network of organizations with grave human rights concerns regarding the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), host of the 2023 COP28 climate negotiations. We support the concerns expressed by climate justice movements that allowing COP28 to be held by the rulers of a repressive petrostate, and overseen by an oil executive, is reckless, represents a blatant conflict of interest, and threatens the legitimacy of the whole process.
Climate justice and human rights are deeply interconnected – there cannot be one without the other. As COP28 delegates prepare to attend the talks in Dubai, it is crucial for the international community to use the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the UAE’s human rights record, and to stand in solidarity with communities on the frontlines working to stop climate change impacts and human rights violations in the UAE and across the world.
We, as a global network of civil society organizations, will not be silenced by a government that has long used surveillance, propaganda tactics, and violent repression to silence critics, control public discourse, and shut down civil society organizations and movements. We will not allow for COP28 and the urgent and ambitious climate commitments needed from this process to be derailed or watered down by greenwashing efforts. We will oppose any attempt to use COP28 and our presence to greenwash this repressive government. Rather, we call for COP28 to be used to shine the global spotlight on the human rights violations perpetrated against communities inside the UAE – especially prisoners of conscience, migrant workers, women, and LGBTQI+ communities – and beyond. We won’t allow for our solidarity to be weaponized by wealthy industrialized countries to point the finger at the UAE and at the same time refuse to take responsibility for their historical and continued human rights violations and for their historical and continued role in creating and fuelling the climate crisis.
At COP28 and beyond, we reiterate our call that there can be no climate justice without human rights, and there can be no human rights without climate justice.
As a global network of civil society organizations, we the undersigned urge you to take the following immediate steps to address the UAE’s ongoing human rights crisis and to ensure that COP28 climate negotiations produce the ambitious commitments necessary to address global climate change:
1. Demand that the UAE not spy on COP28 attendees and end unlawful state surveillance that violates international human rights law and standards.
The UAE is a surveillance state that uses its technology to spy on millions of people both inside and outside its borders. The UAE must end all unlawful state surveillance that violates international human rights law and standards, including the right to privacy. The UAE must refrain from conducting surveillance related to COP28 and its attendees. In addition, the UAE must also cease the use of spyware and surveillance technologies to repress peaceful critics andjournalists, stop censoring and controlling Internet usage and communication networks, and allow full access to all encrypted messenger apps and virtual private networks (VPNs).
2. Call on the UAE to release all prisoners of conscience.
The rulers of the UAE have unjustly imprisoned numerous Emirati human rights defenders, civil society activists, and political dissidents. In 2021, these human rights concerns led the European Parliament to vote to “encourage Member States not to participate” in the UAE Dubai World Expo, a decision that received international attention. The UAE must release all prisoners of conscience, stop harassing their families, close all secret prisons, and stop torturing detainees.
3. Demand action on UAE violations of women’s rights.
COP28 attendees must refuse to meet with UAE officials who have committed violence against women, such as Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (kidnapping of his adult daughters and spousal abuse) and UAE Minister of “Tolerance” Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan (accused of rape). The UAE must investigate and prosecute these individuals, free the disappeared Dubai Princess Shamsa, and repeal laws that discriminate against women.
4. Condemn UAE violations of LGBTQI+ rights.
The UAE must repeal all laws that criminalize LGBTQI+ individuals, end all discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and respect freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly for LGBTQI+ individuals.
5. Call for workers’ rights reforms and reparations for forced labor.
The UAE monarchy must pay reparations to all migrant workers who built or have worked at the site of the COP28 facilities (Expo City Dubai) under conditions of abuse and forced labor, commit to protecting migrant workers from exposure to extreme heat and related occupational risks, lift the ban on independent trade unions, abolish the Kafala system of labor sponsorship, and end all sex trafficking and conditions of sexual slavery in Dubai.
6. Urge the UAE to stop supporting human rights violators in Yemen and across the Middle East and North Africa.
The UAE must end its long history of supporting human rights violations and abuses by armed groups and governments that violate human rights, including in Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. In Yemen, the UAE must pay reparations to people harmed by Saudi/UAE-led airstrikes on civilians and the Saudi/UAE military coalition’s blockade. The UAE must also stop supporting abuses by armed groups in Yemen that are responsible for violations of international law. In Libya, the UAE must stop violating the UN Security Council’s comprehensive arms embargo and stop supplying arms to any armed forces in the country.
7. Publicly repudiate UAE greenwashing and fossil fuel hypocrisy:
The UAE must end its greenwashing campaign, abandon its plans to dramatically increase state oil and gas production, and rectify the profound conflict of interest created by UAE state oil company chief executive Sultan al-Jaber also serving as president of the COP28 climate negotiations.
In addition, we urge all nations to make meaningful and ambitious commitments at COP28, with rich countries taking responsibility for their historical emissions and leading the way with commitments in line with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and principles of equity. COP28 must produce a global commitment to phase out all fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies at the speed needed to keep global average temperature increases below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The entire world will be impacted by the agreements reached during the COP28 climate negotiations. Unfortunately, the legitimacy of the conference and the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is at risk if human rights and civic space aren’t protected in the UAE and across the world, and if major polluters and rich countries continue to interfere with the urgent and drastic climate commitments that are needed. As global civil society organizations, groups, and movements, we reiterate our deepest concern and urgent call for both human rights and climate justice to be at the center of the COP process this year and always.
APPENDIX: Additional Information on UAE Human Rights Violations and Climate Concerns
1. Demand that the UAE not spy on COP28 attendees and end unlawful state surveillance that violates international human rights law and standards.
The UAE is a surveillance state that uses its technology to spy on millions of people both inside and outside its borders. We urge you to publicly call on the UAE to:
- cease all planned surveillance of COP28 attendees,
- refrain from censoring communication networks,
- allow the free use and full functionality of all encrypted messenger apps, and
- stop using surveillance technology to spy on and repress peaceful critics inside the UAE and worldwide.
As documented by Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, the UAE has a long record of spying on human rights defenders, including imprisoned human rights advocate Ahmed Mansoor. Two separate Reuters news reports document how the UAE, with the support of hired U.S. intelligence operatives, spied on journalists, activists, and political leaders worldwide, including Yemeni Nobel Peace laureate Tawokkol Karman.
In 2019, the New York Times reported that ToTok, a cell phone messaging app downloaded globally by millions, was actually a UAE mass surveillance tool, and Google and Apple removed the popular app from their online stores. Evidence also suggests that the UAE is also likely to have been behind the digital surveillance of other public figures, including government officials, human rights defenders, and journalists and editors. The UAE was also likely to be one of the customers of NSO Group, the Israeli producer of Pegasus hacking-and-surveillance software.
2. Call on the UAE to release all prisoners of conscience.
UAE authorities have unjustly imprisoned numerous Emirati human rights defenders, civil society activists, and political dissidents. We urge you to publicly call on the UAE to:
- release all prisoners of conscience,
- stop harassing their families,
- close all secret prisons, and
- stop torturing detainees and holding them in solitary confinement..
For over a decade, UAE authorities have unjustly detained over 60 Emirati human rights defenders, civil society activists, and political dissidents who were arrested due to their demands for reform and democracy. Many from this group, commonly known as the “UAE94”, were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment. As documented by the SANID human rights campaign, more than three-quarters of these prisoners remain in prison, despite 55 of them having completed their unjust sentences. Families of the imprisoned have been subjected to unrelenting reprisals. In 2021, these human rights concerns led the European Parliament to vote to “encourage Member States not to participate” in the UAE Dubai World Expo, a decision that received international attention.
3. Demand action on UAE violations of women’s rights:
The UAE has an extensive record of violating women’s rights, including discriminatory laws and even personal acts of violence against women by senior ruling elites. We urge you to take the following steps to push for an end to the UAE’s terrible record on women’s rights:
- Pledge not to meet with or join events with senior UAE officials who have committed, or are accused of committing, violence against women. These individuals include Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (kidnapping of his adult daughters and spousal abuse) and UAE Minister of “Tolerance” Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan (accused of rape).
- Call for an independent investigation and prosecution of Dubai ruler Sheikh Maktoum and UAE Minister of “Tolerance” Sheikh Nahyan for their documented and alleged acts of violence against women.
- Call for freedom for Dubai Princess Shamsa, who has not been seen publicly since she was kidnapped in 2000 by her father, Dubai ruler Sheikh Al Maktoum.
- Call for repeal of the UAE’s male guardianship laws and other laws that discriminate against women.
The government enforces a system of discrimination and male control over Emirati women. UAE law also discriminates based on gender in the transmission of citizenship from parent to child. All children born to an Emirati father become Emirati nationals from the moment of birth, while children born to an Emirati mother but a non-Emirati father can only be granted Emirati nationality by special permission from the government, and can only be applied for at least six years after birth.
4. Condemn UAE violations of LGBTQI+ rights
The UAE criminalises and discriminates against LGBTQI+ individuals, including laws that infringe on the right of consenting adults to freely decide their own sexual practices. We urge you to call for the upholding of the human rights of LGBTQI+ people in the UAE and to demand that the UAE end its discrimination against, and criminalisation and oppression of, LGBTQI+ individuals
- Call for the repeal of all UAE laws that criminalise LGBTQI+ individuals, whether the criminalization is through explicit provisions or through the impact of vague, overly broad and legally undefined terms.
- Call for the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in the UAE
- Demand the safeguarding of freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly for LGBTQI+ communities.
5. Call for workers’ rights reforms and reparations for forced labor.
We urge you to call on the UAE monarchy to:
- Pay reparations to all migrant workers who built or have worked at the site of the COP28 facilities under conditions of abuse and forced labor.
- Commit to protecting migrant workers from exposure to extreme heat, which can lead to potentially fatal injuries and illnesses.
- Lift the ban on independent labor unions and allow all workers in the UAE to organize and advocate for their needs.
- Abolish the Kafala system of labor sponsorship, which traps many migrant and foreign workers in systems of human trafficking, forced labor, and other abuses.
- End all sex trafficking and conditions of sexual slavery in Dubai.
Approximately 90 percent of the UAE’s 9 million population are foreign nationals – most of whom are low-wage and semi-skilled workers from Africa, Asia, and elsewhere in the Middle East. Even the U.S. government, a major ally and enabler of UAE human rights violations, stated in its 2023 US Trafficking in Persons report on the UAE that “it is not uncommon for employers to subject some of these workers to conditions indicative of forced labor, such as passport retention, non-payment of wages and unpaid overtime, restrictions on movement, contract switching, fraudulent employment promises, substandard food and housing provisions, or a failure to meet other contractual agreements.” And as reported by Reuters earlier this year, sex trafficking persists in the UAE without serious efforts by Emirati authorities to end it.”
The very site where COP28 will be held was built and has been staffed by workers who were abused and subjected to forced labor. The COP28 climate negotiations will occur in Expo City Dubai, a site that was originally built for the UAE Dubai Expo 2020. As documented by labor rights organization Equidem during the time of Expo 2020, “migrant workers engaged on projects at Expo 2020 Dubai across a range of sectors – from hospitality and retail to construction and security – are being subjected to forced labour practices.” More than 40,000 workers were employed in the Expo City Dubai construction process, and thousands of additional migrant workers have performed other forms of work. The “majority of Expo 2020 Dubai workers interviewed faced forced labour practices.” Without proper investigation and reparations for these workers, COP28 climate negotiations will occur on the backs of abused workers.
6. Urge the UAE to stop supporting human rights violators in Yemen and across the Middle East and North Africa.
We urge you to demand that the UAE:
- Stop intervening across the Middle East and North Africa to suppress exercise of human rights and stop supporting crackdowns on opposition political groups, including in Bahrain, Egypt, and Tunisia.
- Stop supporting human rights violations by states or armed groups in Yemen that have imprisoned, tortured, and killed civilians.
- Pay full reparations to people harmed by the Saudi/UAE-led war and blockade on Yemen.
- Stop violating the UN Security Council’s comprehensive arms embargo in Libya and stop supplying arms to armed forces in Libya.
7. Publicly repudiate UAE greenwashing and fossil fuel hypocrisy:
We urge you to publicly reject the UAE’s massive campaign of greenwashing, propaganda, and fossil fuel hypocrisy. Specifically, we urge you to commit to the following actions:
- Demand that the UAE abandon plans to dramatically increase state oil and gas production.
- Oppose Sultan al-Jaber serving simultaneously as COP28 president and CEO of UAE state oil company ADNOC.
- Call for adoption of a COP28 global commitment to the rapid, equitable, and full phase out of all fossil fuels and all fossil fuel subsidies at the speed necessary to keep global average temperature increases below 1.5C.
As host of COP28, the UAE has repeatedly issued climate-friendly statements while simultaneously pursuing a dramatic expansion of its oil and gas production. Ninety percent of the UAE’s government revenue comes from its fossil fuel industries, and the UAE monarchy uses this vast fossil fuel wealth to fund internal repression and regional interventions that violate human rights. Furthermore, the UAE has appointed the very individual in charge of its fossil fuel expansion – ADNOC chief executive Sultan al-Jaber – to preside over the COP28 climate negotiations. In early 2023, Climate Action Network and Amnesty International called for al-Jaber to step down as CEO of the UAE’s state oil company. Over 450 climate organizations have declared that “No COP overseen by a fossil fuel executive can be seen as legitimate.” And in May of 2023, over 130 Members of the European Parliament and U.S. Members of Congress called for al-Jaber’s removal as COP28 president.
