Rights Watch: UAE has violated human rights in Yemen

SANAA, Jan. 18 (YPA) – Human Rights Watch organization said that the UAE continues to provide evidence of its disrespect for the law and has become a concern over the past few years, becoming an unsafe place for academics, journalists and activists alike.

On the war on Yemen, the organization said it had documented “illegal” attacks of the alliance, including war crimes, in which the alliance, including the UAE, provided insufficient information about the role of their forces in the war.

The organization said that the UAE forces and the proxy forces (mercenaries) “arbitrarily detained Yemenis in the south and east of Yemen and forced them to hide and torture them, including Yemeni activists who criticized the violations of the coalition forces.”

“The plight of Matthew Hedges and the imprisonment of activist Ahmed Mansour are additional evidence of the UAE’s disrespect for the law, while claiming it is a progressive, tolerant and respectful state,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East division.

In a report published on Thursday, the organization has listed several aspects of the UAE’s human rights violations, including the trial of human rights activists and academics in addition to the forced return, and the disappearance of the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Aal-Maktoum, for about 9 months after trying to flee the country by sea.

Whitson noted that the pictures broadcast by the UAE Foreign Ministry to Mary Robinson, the former UN human rights commissioner, with Latifa to “refute false claims and to come out with the statement that the latter has a mental illness is not a substitute for providing evidence that she enjoys her freedom.”