Human Rights Watch warned of a “message of intimidation” from the UAE ahead of its hosting of a global conference on climate change at the end of this year.
And Watch quoted an investigation conducted by the Financial Times newspaper as saying that the organizers of the “World Summit to Forecast a Healthy Future 2023”, which was held recently in Abu Dhabi, advised the speakers at the conference not to criticize the government, companies, or individuals, or to protest while they were in the country.
The organization concluded, “This is considered a message of intimidation, given that the UAE is preparing to host the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 28) at the end of this year.”
According to Watch, the speakers’ warning is “a stark reminder of the UAE government’s zero-tolerance policy towards criticism.”
The organization said that since 2011, the UAE authorities have carried out a continuous attack on freedom of expression and association, arresting and prosecuting dozens of lawyers, judges, professors, students, and independent activists, including prominent Emirati human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor. The government closed down major civil society associations.
And Watch warned that the law effectively prohibits protests, and that the UAE introduced in late 2021 “widespread legal changes that increased repression.”
Despite the reassurance of an Emirati official that the organizers will ensure “the existence of safe spaces in which all voices are heard” – as the organization attributed to a statement issued by it – it stressed that “it is difficult to imagine any participant feeling reassured by this statement given the widespread use of digital surveillance and the expansion of the UAE’s absolute intolerance of Criticism has led to the imprisonment of foreigners who reside or visit the Emirates.”
