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UAE anti-terror laws 'cover' for crackdown on peaceful dissent, report shows
The United Arab Emirates' landmark 2014 anti-terror law is being used as a tool of political control rather than a way to protect national security, a new report by Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) said.
The non-governmental organisation was founded in 2005 by Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Tawakkol Karman.
In a 48-page report released last week, the findings point to vague legal provisions in the UAE that allow for what the authors have couched as dangerous prosecutorial overreach.
Federal Law No. 7 of 2014 represents the UAE's most comprehensive legal instrument addressing terrorism-related offenses. It was created because of a confluence of regional instability and the UAE's own strategic recalibration.
There was also the regional rise of the Islamic State, which added to the urgency of the law's development.
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Reformists have also long said that the law was designed to halt the rise of a popular brand of political Islam in the early 2010s.
But its criminalisation efforts under broad terms such as "offending the state" and "undermining national unity" raise significant human rights concerns, the report said.
"Compounding this issue is the law's reference to individuals who 'threaten', 'aim', 'plan', or 'seek' to commit terrorist crimes - formulations so vague that they could encompass expressions of opinion, political advocacy or even the exercise of conscience," the authors said.
As a result, Federal Law No. 7 has caused the suppression of civil society engagement and dissent, leading to the detention of journalists, lawyers and academics, and creating a chilling effect across the country, the report explained.
Among the most notable cases are individuals who received a decade or longer prison sentences for being part of the so-called 'UAE 94': when 94 activists were prosecuted for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2012-2013.
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The detainees were largely affiliated with the political reform party al-Islah, whose approach was solely non-violent. But for some of the most high profile dissidents, serving their sentence was not enough - the UAE tried several of them again in 2022-2023 under the vague terms of the 2014 anti-terror law, and extended their sentences, the report showed.
Many of the alleged activities in the case that became known as the 'UAE 84' in its second round pre-dated the anti-terror law itself, raising concerns about the retroactive application of criminal law.
Human rights lawyer Mohammed al-Roken - after spending a decade in prison - is now serving a life sentence for opposing the act of citizenship revocation by the Emirati government, the report said.
Activists Maryam al-Balushi and Amina al-Abdouli were sentenced to an additional three years in prison in 2021 for "publishing information that disturbs public order", after they shared audio recordings with United Nations Special Procedures, in which they described torture and abuse in UAE prisons.
"The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that both women were subjected to unfair trials and arbitrary detention. Their cases demonstrate how the law is used to silence prisoners who expose abuse, even while in custody," the report said.
And even though they are now working in exile, Mohammed al-Zaabi and Hamad al-Shamsi, who remain advocates for the UAE's political prisoners, have been added to the country's terrorism blacklist.
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But it's not just criticism of the UAE and its ruling family that has landed people in prison.
The economist Nasser bin Ghaith has been arrested multiple times for his critical views of regional governments. In 2017 he was sentenced to a decade behind bars on charges including "offending the state" and "communicating with banned groups".
Families of political prisoners often face harassment, travel bans and surveillance, and live in fear of acts of retaliation, the report also said.
"These cases reflect the systematic use of counterterrorism legislation to dismantle civil society, criminalize peaceful expression and suppress legitimate dissent rather than targeting genuine threats," WJWC noted.
Punishments in the UAE for perceived terror offenses also far exceed the international standard, it showed.
"Arbitrary deprivation of liberty is prohibited; detention must be time-bound and subject to judicial oversight," the report said, adding that there must be "independent and transparent investigations into all torture allegations, holding perpetrators accountable".
But the UAE allows for indefinite detention in "counseling centres" even after a prison sentence is served, without a clear path to contest continued detention. There are also no independent authorities to investigate torture complaints, which are widespread, the report indicated.
"The UAE's continued failure to ratify key international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and its non-compliance with obligations under instruments it has ratified - such as the Convention Against Torture - highlight a profound gap between international human rights commitments and domestic legal practice," the authors wrote.
The WJWC also issued a call to "international actors - including UN bodies, human rights organisations and the UAE's Western allies - to exert meaningful diplomatic and policy pressure to encourage reforms".
The report argued that because the UAE presents itself as a key global counterterrorism partner, it legitimises its policies to governments abroad, when it is only further asserting authoritarian control.
The WJWC urged immediate changes toward detailing the language in the anti-terror law, ensuring transparency in independent judicial proceedings and allowing public access to trials.
It called for the repeal of provisions allowing for indefinite detention, and a "guarantee" that any "rehabilitation" programmes are in fact voluntary.
The UAE must also assume full engagement with UN human rights bodies and allow for country visits for compliance assessments, the WJWC argued.
