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UAE
Violations of Human Rights
 Respect for Political Rights
The law does not provide citizens the right to change their government peacefully or freely change the laws that govern them. There were no democratic general elections or institutions, and citizens did not have the right to form political parties.
On December 16, the government denied the FNC the right to discuss publicly the increasingly political topics of national identity associated with the demographic imbalance between the minority citizen population and the majority expatriate population.
a. Elections and Political Participation
In 2006 a 6,689-member appointed electorate elected half of the 40-seat FNC, a consultative body that has no legislative mandate. On December 2, The Supreme Council announced a constitutional amendment that extended the term of FNC members from two to four years.
Federal executive and legislative power is in the hands of the Federal Supreme Council, a body composed of the hereditary rulers of the seven emirates that elects from its members the country's president and vice president.
Decisions at the federal level generally were made by consensus among the rulers, their families, and other leading families. The ruling families, in consultation with other prominent tribal figures, also choose new emirate rulers.
Although the FNC has no legislative authority, it generally reviewed all federal draft laws and decrees before they were officially adopted by the Federal Supreme Council, and it could send legislation back for amendment. The FNC also has the authority to question any government minister. During the year the government accepted 80 percent of the FNC's recommendations. Former and present FNC members called during the year for greater legislative powers.
Despite laws discouraging women's political activities, some women were active in political life, mostly at the federal level. Four women were appointed ministers in the cabinet; nine women, one of whom was elected, served in the FNC; and despite a law prohibiting women from serving in the judiciary, several women served as public prosecutors or judges.
In Sharjah, seven women served on the 40-seat Consultative Council, and two women served as directors of local departments; however, no women held nonfederal senior government positions in the other emirates.
Except in the judiciary, minorities, including Shia, did not serve in senior federal positions. Many judges were contracted foreign nationals.
b. Government Corruption and Transparency
TThe law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and the government generally implemented the law effectively. Government corruption reportedly occurred at the administrative level. There were no financial disclosure laws for public officials.
On January 8, the Abu Dhabi Naturalization and Residency Department arrested an employee of the Al Ain Naturalization and Residency Department for illegally issuing entry visas for cash. In Dubai there were other high-profile corruption investigations during the year that led to criminal charges of betrayal of trust and unlawfully taking possession of money and property.
On October 25, the Department of Accountability returned to the treasury approximately 300 million dirhams (approximately $82 million), which employees had embezzled. At year's end there was no information regarding what had happened to the employees.
The law provides for public access to government information, but the government followed this provision selectively. Requests for access usually went unanswered.
Violations of Human Rights
The government did not generally permit organizations to focus on political issues.However, two recognized local human rights organizations existed: the quasi-independent EHRA--which focused on human rights issues and complaints such as labor rights, stateless persons' rights, and prisoners' well-being and humane treatment--and the government-subsidized Jurists' Association Human Rights Committee--which focused on human rights education and conducted seminars and symposia subject to government approval.
Although it was headed by a government prosecutor, the EHRA generally operated without government interference, apart from the many requirements faced by all associations in the country. However, lack of government interference did not imply full cooperation. For example Ministry of Interior officials refused to meet with EHRA members concerning the treatment of prisoners and conditions in detention facilities.
The government did not allow international human rights NGOs to be based in the country but allowed representatives to visit on a limited basis. There were no transparent standards governing visitation from international NGO representatives.
The government generally cooperated with other international organizations, including the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UNHCR. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs maintained an office in the country.
Discrimination And Social Abuses
The constitution provides for equality before the law without regard to race, nationality, or social status, and the law prohibits discrimination based on disability; however, legal and cultural discrimination existed and went unpunished.
a. Women
Rape is punishable by death under the penal code, but in Shari'a courts the extremely high burden of proof often meant that the crime was not recognized. The penal code does not specifically address spousal rape.
During the year there were 53 rape cases reported, of which 46 resulted in convictions with sentences varying from three months in prison to life imprisonment and deportation for noncitizens.
However, given the onerous burden of proof and societal pressure, it was likely that the actual incidence of rape was much higher.
Domestic abuse against women, including spousal abuse, was a pervasive problem. The penal code allows men to use physical means, including violence, at their discretion against female and minor family members. Nevertheless, some domestic abuse cases may be filed as assault without intent to kill, punishable by 10 years in prison if death results, seven years for permanent disability, and one year for temporary injury.
Victims of domestic abuse may file complaints with police units stationed in major public hospitals. Social workers and counselors, usually female, also maintained offices in public hospitals and police stations. In 2007 Dubai police handled 126 cases of wife beating and more than 200 nonphysical domestic conflict cases.
Women were often reluctant to file formal charges of abuse for social, cultural, and economic reasons. There were several reports that police refused to protect women and instead encouraged them to return home. In some cases authorities contacted the allegedly abusive husbands asking them to transport their wives home.
In 2007 the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, funded by the Dubai government, opened a shelter to serve victims of human trafficking and domestic violence.
There were no specific reports of honor crimes or killings, although such incidents were rumored to occur within the Muslim expatriate population.
Paternity denial was an emerging problem in the courts. Despite DNA tests proving paternity, the courts could not force a man to accept paternal responsibility. The implications for the mothers of these children were extremely serious because the women faced potential charges of adultery, a legally punishable crime.
Prostitution is illegal; however, it has become an increasing problem in recent years, particularly in Dubai. Although prostitution was widely acknowledged to exist, the government did not address the issue publicly. However, one police officer was charged for informing the female head of a brothel of an impending police raid. There was no evidence of sex tourism.
During the year the press reported that men were arrested and prosecuted for harassing women in public. The penal code prohibits "disgracing or dishonoring" a person in public, punishable by a minimum of one year in prison, and up to 15 years if the victim is younger than 14.
An "infamous" act against the rules of decency carries a penalty of six months in prison, and "dishonoring a woman by word or deed on a public roadway" results in up to one year in prison and a 10,000 dirham (approximately $2,700) fine. On January 28, the public prosecutor charged a driver with molesting a shopper in a store, violating her privacy, and indecently gesturing in a public place.
Women also faced legal and economic discrimination. The government's interpretation of Shari'a was applied in personal status cases and family law. Muslim women were forbidden to marry non-Muslims. Unlike men, female citizens married to noncitizens did not automatically pass citizenship to their children. The law permits a man to have as many as four wives. Women normally inherited less than men under the government's interpretation of Shari'a.
For example a son may inherit double what a daughter inherits when their parent dies. It was difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce as she is required to prove that her husband has inflicted physical or moral harm upon her, that he has abandoned her for at least three months, or that he has not maintained her upkeep or that of their children.
Alternatively, women may divorce by paying compensation or surrendering their dowry to their husbands. The law gives divorced women custody of female children only until the age of 13 and male children only until the age of 10. Fornication is a crime, and the government may imprison and deport noncitizen women if they bear children out of wedlock.
No law prohibits women from working or owning businesses, and a man has no right under the government's interpretation of Shari'a to ban his wife from working if she was employed at the time of their marriage; however, some husbands reportedly prevented their wives from working.
Women who worked outside the home sometimes did not receive equal benefits, and women also reportedly faced discrimination in promotion.
Women constituted 65 percent of all university students. Coeducation is prohibited in public schools and universities except at the UAE University Executive MBA Program. Several private schools, private universities, and institutions are coeducational.
The government continued to make efforts to integrate women more fully. On January 16, the first female pilots graduated from Khalifa bin Zayed Air College, and on September 15, the country appointed its first two female ambassadors.
Women comprised 10 percent of the country's diplomatic corps. On November 5, at the Dubai Judicial Institute, 10 female trainees were sworn in as the first female public prosecutors in the emirate of Dubai.
b. Children
The government registered Bidoon births but did not grant citizenship to the children, who remained stateless.
Education is compulsory through the ninth grade; however, compulsory education was not enforced, and some children did not attend school.
Noncitizen children could enroll in public schools only if they scored at least 90 percent on entrance exams. Primary education was provided free to citizens, but not to noncitizens.
Public schools were not coeducational after kindergarten, and statistically, in every age group, girls and women were more academically successful and continued to higher levels of education than their male peers.
Child abuse was not prevalent, although there was some evidence that societal influences prevented cases from being reported. The law protects children from abuse and trafficking and the government provides shelter and help for victims. However, the law does not address female genital mutilation (FGM), which some Somali, Omani, and Sudanese expatriates practiced.
The Ministry of Health prohibits hospitals and clinics from performing FGM, but some private clinics in the northern emirates and rural areas continued to carry out the procedure.
c. Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons; however, trafficking continued to be a serious problem. The country remained a destination for men, women, and children from South and East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for involuntary servitude and sexual exploitation, and a transit point for women trafficked into Oman and men into Iraq.
Women from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and the Philippines migrated willingly to the country to work as domestic servants, but some faced debt bondage to recruiters; conditions of involuntary servitude such as excessive work hours without pay; verbal, mental, physical, or sexual abuse; and restrictions on movement. Similarly, men from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who came to the country to work in the construction industry were sometimes subject to involuntary servitude and debt bondage to pay off recruitment costs.
Although illegal, it was customary for employers to take custody of workers' passports. Observers believed that resident citizen employment sponsors and foreign-based traffickers partnered to traffic women and girls into the country, especially to Dubai, for commercial sexual exploitation.
A trafficker may promise a legal employment opportunity and supply a victim with a fraudulent passport with an inflated age; after the victim enters the country on a visitor's or worker's visa, a fraudulent employment sponsor might force the victim into commercial sexual exploitation.
The law prescribes punishments including jail sentences for those convicted of trafficking, including for commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude.
The National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking is the government entity responsible for combating trafficking in persons, in coordination with law enforcement and government ministries. Although there were 11 prosecutions and convictions during the year, enforcement and punishments generally remained lacking.
The government has not fully developed an effective method to screen and identify actual or potential trafficking victims who do not identify themselves to authorities. As a result many victims were believed to have been deported on criminal charges without access to protective services or without being able to testify against their traffickers.
There were reports from foreign embassies that some police authorities pressured victims not to pursue complaints against their employers and assisted employers in repatriating victims before a criminal complaint could be filed.
Victims who were unable to provide evidence of trafficking were sometimes provided with food and shelter until they acquired travel documents to return home. At least one official and one private shelter in Dubai assisted victims of abuse and trafficking. The National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking continued its active efforts to eliminate trafficking through awareness campaigns, training of law enforcement personnel, and coordination of government efforts.
The government continued a program with UNICEF and other countries to repatriate and rehabilitate former camel jockeys.
The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report can be found at www.state.gov/g/tip
d. Persons with Disabilities
The law prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities. Most public buildings provided some form of access for persons with disabilities in accordance with the law.
There were no reported incidents of discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment or education; however, health care provided in the Ministry of Labor's (MOL) five federal rehabilitation centers, as well as that in private centers, was reportedly inadequate. Moreover, the public centers were not available to noncitizens.
Various departments within the ministries of labor and education were responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
One percent of all federal government jobs and 2 percent of government jobs in Abu Dhabi are reserved for persons with disabilities.
On May 19, the Ministry of Economy hired a severely visually impaired woman upon a request from the EHRA, and on July 9, the MOL acknowledged the contributions of six employees with disabilities who had been working there since 2000.
e. National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Societal discrimination against noncitizens, comprising approximately 80 percent of the resident population and originating primarily from the Indian subcontinent, was prevalent and occurred in most areas of daily life, including employment, education, housing, social interaction, and health care.
Although the government endeavors to improve standards of living for all residents, there were few programs targeted at improving conditions for noncitizens.
f. Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination
Both civil law and Shari'a criminalize homosexual activity, and Islamic religious law sets the death penalty as punishment for individuals who engage in consensual homosexual activities.
During the year there were reports that the government deported and sentenced to prison individuals for being openly homosexual.
Cross-dressing, according to the law, is a punishable offense. On May 26, Dubai police announced that transvestites would be arrested if caught in public.
Police arrested 40 cross-dressing tourists in local shopping malls and other public places over the following three weeks and deported them soon after.
On April 8, Dubai courts confirmed 15-year jail terms for two citizen men and a three-year term for one male minor citizen for the July 2007 gang rape of a 15-year-old Swiss-French boy. The victim left the country before any criminal prosecution.
Persons with HIV/AIDS and other diseases also faced discrimination. There were credible reports that government officials discriminated against prisoners with HIV by not granting commuted sentences or parole that other prisoners with similar records had received.
Noncitizen residents infected with HIV, hepatitis types B and C, and tuberculosis were denied all healthcare benefits, quarantined, and deported. During the year the government deported 1,518 noncitizen residents infected with these diseases.
The EHRA also reported that several women diagnosed with breast cancer were fired solely because of their illness and that hundreds of women were reluctant to undergo medical examinations to detect breast cancer for fear of losing their jobs if they received a positive diagnosis.
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