While December 2023 saw the global spotlight on Dubai for the COP28, Abu Dhabi discreetly conducted the second-largest political mass trial in the UAE’s history, known as the “UAE87” in a complete absence of media coverage. On December 7, 2023, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal held its first hearing of a new mass trial involving...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in 2023 and used it to burnish its image despite pushing for fossil fuel expansion and maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward dissent, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2024. The UAE, one of the world’s largest oil producers and per capita greenhouse...
“Detention in horrific conditions, torture, deportation [and a] criminal conviction.” These are the risks climate activists could face if they protest at COP28, the international climate conference to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates in December, says human rights lawyer Ben Keith. Keith, who qualified as a UK barrister in 2004, focuses on a...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) likes to portray itself as a modern, progressive country—a nation on the rise. The home to the glittering skyscrapers and nightclubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi was last month listed among the top 10 countries of the Global Soft Power Index for the first time—ahead of Australia and Sweden and just behind...