Human Rights Report (2011) - United Arab Emirates

There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.

There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

The constitution prohibits such practices, and there were no known reports that government officials employed torture; however, there were reports of police and prison guard brutality during the year.

In March Ajman police arrested a 14-year-old Arab girl on charges of adultery, subjected her to a virginity test, held her in solitary confinement, and later jailed her with adult women after receiving reports that she had met a 25-year-old man on her building’s rooftop. No further information was available at year’s end.

In May domestic media reported that 13 police officers allegedly beat and tortured three Pakistani prisoners, killing one and severely injuring the others.

Sharia (Islamic law) courts had the option of imposing flogging as punishment for adultery, prostitution, consensual premarital sex, pregnancy outside marriage, defamation of character, and drug or alcohol abuse. Caning in past years resulted in substantial bruising, welts, and open wounds on those flogged. There were no reports that punishments of this type were administered during the year.

On September 12, upon payment of 3.4 million dirhams (approximately $925,000) in diya (blood money), the Sharjah Court of Appeal revoked the death sentences of 17 Indian nationals convicted of murder in March 2010. In September 2010 local media reported the convicts claimed their confessions were obtained after a severe beating by police in Dubai. The government deported four of the former prisoners in November, but 13 others remain in the Sharjah Central Jail due to a travel ban imposed because of other pending litigation against them.

The constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention; however, there were reports that the government held persons in official custody without charge or a preliminary judicial hearing. The Ministry of Interior detained foreign residents arbitrarily at times. The law permits indefinite, routine, and incommunicado detention without appeal. Under this procedure, the detainee may contact an attorney but is not permitted to see friends and family.

In June local authorities refused for more than a month to confirm the detention of an American citizen being held by the State Security Department. From June 1, until his deportation on September 14, he was detained without charge and held incommunicado except for one consular visit.

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, in practice court decisions remained subject to review by the political leadership and suffered from nepotism. There were reports that the State Security Department intervened in judicial affairs. The judiciary was composed largely of contracted foreign nationals subject to potential deportation, further compromising its independence from the government. There was no functional separation between the executive and judicial branches.

By tradition the local rulers’ offices, or “diwans,” maintained the practice of reviewing some criminal and civil offenses before they referred cases to prosecutors. They also reviewed sentences judges passed, returned cases to the court on appeal if they did not approve of the verdict, and approved the release of every prisoner who had completed a sentence. The diwans’ involvement--usually in cases between two citizens or between a citizen and noncitizen--led to lengthy delays prior to and following the judicial process and lengthened the time defendants served in prison. The diwan’s decision in any court case is considered final and, when a judge and diwan disagree, the diwan’s decision prevails.

The constitution prohibits entry into a home without the owner’s permission, except when police present a warrant in accordance with the law, but there were credible reports that security forces occasionally failed to obtain warrants. Officers’ actions in searching premises were subject to review by the Ministry of Interior, and officers were liable to disciplinary action if their actions were judged irresponsible.

The constitution provides for freedom and confidentiality of correspondence by mail, telegram, and all other means of communication. However, there were reports that the government censored some incoming international mail, tapped telephones, and monitored outgoing mail and electronic forms of communication without legal process.

Local interpretation of Sharia prohibits Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims and Muslim men from marrying women not “of the book,” meaning adherents of religions other than Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

c. Freedom of Religion

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The law provides for freedom of movement within the country, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights in practice; however, the government imposed legal restrictions on foreign travel. The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations on a humanitarian basis, but it did not grant refugee status or asylum. The lack of passports or other identity documents restricted the movement of stateless persons, both within the country and internationally.

Foreign Travel: Male citizens involved in legal disputes under adjudication were generally not permitted to travel outside the UAE. Custom dictates that a husband can prevent his wife, minor children, and adult unmarried daughters from leaving the country by taking custody of their passports.

Citizenship: The government may revoke naturalized citizens’ passports and citizenship status for criminal or politically provocative actions. On December 4,government authorities revoked the citizenship of six members of the organization Dawat Al-Islah, some of whom had signed a petition earlier in the year calling for an elected parliament with executive powers.

Recent Elections: While there were no democratic general elections, on September 24, a 130,000-member appointed electorate elected 20 members of the FNC, a 40-member consultative body with no legislative authority. Seats in the FNC were apportioned to each emirate based on population size. Each emirate appoints a portion of the other 20 FNC members. Authorities expanded the electorate from the 2006 election, in which they appointed only 6,689 Emiratis. The electorate appointment process lacked transparency. Approximately 28 percent of eligible voters participated, electing one woman among the 20 FNC members. There were more than 460 candidates, some of whom publicly lobbied for greater legislative authority without retaliation from the government.

Political Parties: Citizens did not have the right to form political parties.

Participation of Women and Minorities: Although some traditional practices discouraged women from engaging in political participation, the government prioritized women’s participation in the September FNC elections and in other areas. Women constituted 46 percent of the electoral pool, appointed by the emirates’ rulers, and 18 percent of FNC candidates. There were four women in the cabinet; seven women, one of whom was elected, served in the FNC; and several women served as public prosecutors or judges. In Sharjah six women served on the 40-seat Consultative Council, reportedly one of the most active local consultative bodies on women’s issues, and women also served as directors of local departments. A few women held nonfederal senior government positions in the other emirates.

Except in the judiciary, religious and racial minorities, including Shia, did not serve in senior federal positions. Many judges were contracted foreign nationals.

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape and it is punishable by death under the penal code. The penal code does not address spousal rape. The penal code allows men to use physical means, including violence, at their discretion against female and minor family members. 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.

In general the government did not enforce such laws effectively. Although domestic abuse against women, including spousal abuse, remained a problem, and there were widespread and frequent reports that employers raped or sexually assaulted foreign domestic workers, such cases rarely made it to court. Furthermore, in Sharia courts the extremely high burden of proof for a rape case contributed to a low conviction rate. In addition, female victims of rape or sexual crimes faced the possibility of prosecution instead of assistance from government authorities. 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. However, women often were reluctant to file formal charges of abuse for social, cultural, and economic reasons. Only Dubai had a domestic abuse center.

Sexual Harassment: The government can prosecute harassment via the penal code prohibition for the following: “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 under the age of 14 years; “infamous” acts against the rules of decency, which carry a penalty of six months in prison; or “dishonoring a woman by word or deed on a public roadway,” which could result in up to one year in prison and a 10,000 dirham (approximately $2,725) fine. The government did not enforce the law effectively.

Reproductive Rights: Married couples had the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and to have the information and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. Fornication outside of marriage is a crime. There was no information on whether men and women were treated and diagnosed equally for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

Discrimination: Women faced legal and economic discrimination. The government’s interpretation of Sharia applied in personal status cases and family law. The law forbade Muslim women to marry non-Muslims. Unlike men, female citizens married to noncitizens did not automatically pass citizenship to their children; however, this changed slightly on the UAE’s 40th National Day (see section 2.d, Stateless Persons). The law permits a man to have as many as four wives. Women normally inherited less than men under the government’s interpretation of Sharia. For example, a son may inherit double what a daughter inherits when their parent dies.

In order for a woman to obtain a divorce with a financial settlement, she must prove that her husband has inflicted physical or moral harm upon her, has abandoned her for at least three months, or has not maintained her upkeep or that of their children. Alternatively, women may divorce by paying compensation or surrendering their dowry to their husbands. Sharia law no longer applies to child custody cases. In August 2010 the Federal Supreme Court adopted the “best interests of the child” standard to determine which parent should receive custody, regardless of Sharia law’s prescription based on the child’s age.

Fornication outside of marriage is a crime, and the government may imprison and deport noncitizen women if they bear children out of wedlock. Paternity denial was an emerging phenomenon in the courts. In several instances, despite DNA tests proving paternity, the courts could not force a man to accept paternal responsibility. In the absence of an acknowledged father, the mothers of these children faced potential legal charges of adultery, for which the punishment can be lashing. However, there were no reports of such lashings during the year.

No law prohibits women from working or owning businesses, and a man has no right under the government’s interpretation of Sharia to ban his wife from working if she was employed at the time of their marriage; however, anecdotal reports suggest that some husbands did so. Women who worked in the private sector regularly did not receive equal benefits and reportedly faced discrimination in promotions and equal wages. While foreign men working in the country could obtain residency permits for their families for three years, foreign women could obtain permits only for a renewable one-year period.

Women constituted more than 75 percent of university students. Federal law prohibits coeducation in public schools and universities except in the United Arab Emirate University’s Executive MBA program, and certain graduate programs at Zayed University. Several private schools, private universities, and institutions were coeducational.

Birth Registration: Citizenship is derived generally from one’s parents. The government registered births of stateless persons (Bidoon), but it did not automatically grant citizenship to them (see section 2.d., Stateless Persons).

Education: Education is compulsory through the ninth grade; however, compulsory education was not enforced, and some children did not attend school, especially children of noncitizens. Noncitizen children could enroll in public schools only if they scored more than 90 percent on entrance examinations, which were given only in Arabic. The government provided primary education free to citizens but not to noncitizens. Public schools were not coeducational after kindergarten. Girls and women generally continued to higher levels of education than their male peers.

Child Abuse: The law prohibits child abuse. It was reportedly not prevalent, but there was some evidence that societal influences prevented cases from being reported. The government provides some shelter and help for child victims of abuse or sexual exploitation. In April the government hosted a three-day meeting of the Virtual Global Task Force, composed of law enforcement agencies from around the world cooperating to protect children from online child abuse and sexual exploitation. Newspapers frequently advertised the Ministry of Interior’s child abuse reporting hotline. In July Minister of Interior Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the establishment of the Center for Child Protection within the ministry to develop policies and strategic plans for family and child protection. At year’s end, the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children was working on the first nationwide comprehensive study of child abuse.

Harmful Traditional Practices: The law does not address female genital mutilation (FGM), which some Somali, Omani, and Sudanese foreign residents practiced although the practice is rare in the UAE. The Ministry of Health prohibits hospitals and clinics from performing FGM.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law criminalizes the sexual exploitation of children, with a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison. Consensual sex is illegal outside of marriage, carrying a minimum penalty of one year in prison. The penalty for sex with children under the age of 14 is life imprisonment. Distribution and consumption of child pornography is illegal (see section 6, Child Abuse).

International Child Abductions: The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on international parental child abduction, please see the Department of State’s annual report on compliance athttp://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport_4308.html, as well as country-specific information athttp://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country_3781.html.

There were no synagogues for the small foreign Jewish population in residence. Some news articles and editorials contained antiSemitic remarks. These expressions occurred primarily in daily newspapers without government response.

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip

The law prohibits discrimination against persons who have physical and mental disabilities; however, the government was slow to implement and enforce the law.

Most public buildings provided some form of access for persons with disabilities in accordance with the law.

Health care provided in the Ministry of Social Affairs’ five federal rehabilitation centers, as well as those in private centers, reportedly was inadequate; the rehabilitation centers lacked qualified individuals who specialized in physical and other medical therapies. Rehabilitation centers focused almost exclusively on medical rehabilitation for people with disabilities and failed to address the need for vocational rehabilitation. Rehabilitation centers considered individuals with disabilities as subjects of medical care and medical “cures,” which impeded social and economic integration and the recognition of the individuals’ human rights and human dignity.

Various departments within the Ministries of Labor, Education, and Social Affairs were responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, and the government effectively enforced these rights in areas related to employment, housing and other entitlement programs. The emirate of Abu Dhabi reserved 2 percent of government jobs for citizens with disabilities, and other emirates and the federal government included statements in their human resources regulations emphasizing that priority should be given to hire citizens with disabilities in the public sector. The employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector remained a significant challenge due to a lack of training and opportunities, a lack of public awareness, and prevalent societal discrimination.

The Community Development Authority of Dubai, among other government agencies, carried out some public awareness campaigns during the year to improve understanding of sexual and psychological harassment faced by children with physical and mental disabilities.

Officials overseeing the September 24 FNC election assisted voters with disabilities, and polling stations had wheelchair ramps at both the men and women’s entrances. Moreover, a blind candidate from Sharjah ran in the FNC election.

Approximately 89 percent of the country’s residents were noncitizens originating primarily from the Indian subcontinent. Societal discrimination against noncitizens was prevalent and occurred in most areas of daily life, including employment, education, housing, social interaction, and health care.

The law criminalizes commercial disputes and bankruptcy, which led to discrimination against foreigners. In practice, these laws were selectively enforced and allowed local Emiratis to threaten expatriate business people and foreign workers with harsh prison sentences to assure a favorable outcome in commercial disputes.

Both civil law and Sharia criminalize homosexual activity. Under Sharia the death penalty is the punishment for individuals who engage in consensual homosexual activity. There were no prosecutions for homosexual activity during the year. At times the government subjected persons to psychological treatment and counseling for homosexual activity.

Cross-dressing is a punishable offense. The government deported cross-dressing foreign residents and referred citizens to public prosecutors.

Persons with HIV/AIDS and other diseases 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, and that HIV-positive prisoners did not have access to appropriate health care in detention. Noncitizen residents infected with HIV, hepatitis types B and C, tuberculosis, and leprosy were denied all health benefits, quarantined, and deported.

The law does not permit workers to form or join unions. The law does not prohibit strikes in the private sector, but it allows an employer to suspend an employee for striking. The labor code forbids strikes by public sector employees, security guards, and migrant workers. There is no right to collective bargaining. In the private sector, individual employment contracts must be approved by and registered with the Ministry of Labor. The labor code does not apply to public servants or domestic and agricultural workers.

At the request of an employer, the government may cancel the work permit of and deport for up to one year any foreign worker for unexcused absences over seven days or for participating in a strike.

No unions existed in the country. The government granted some professional associations with majority citizen membership a limited ability to raise work-related issues, to petition the government for redress, and to file grievances with the government. These organizations were required to receive government approval for international affiliations and travel. Foreign workers may belong to these professional associations; however, they do not have voting rights and cannot serve on the organizations’ boards.

Private sector employees may file collective employment dispute complaints with the Ministry of Labor, which acts as mediator between the parties under the labor law. Employees may file unresolved disputes with the labor court system, which are in turn forwarded to the conciliation council. In practice most cases were resolved through direct negotiation. All foreign workers have the right to lodge labor-related grievances with the Ministry of Labor. The ministry sometimes intervened in disputes and helped negotiate a private settlement.

Public sector employees may file an administrative grievance or a case in the civil courts to address a labor-related dispute or complaint. There was no publicly available information on cases filed.

Protests and strikes took place, most of them illegal. Most worker protests were related to unpaid wages and hazardous or abusive working conditions. The government generally did not punish workers for nonviolent protests or strikes, but it did disperse such protests during the year. On January 26, police detained 74 workers in Dubai during a strike by more than 3,000 employees demanding wage increases from Arabtec, a construction company. The company agreed to a wage increase and improved benefits for thousands of workers, but the government deported the 74 detained workers.

On May 2, the government dissolved the board of the Teachers’ Association, an organization that represents and defends the rights of teachers in the country (see section 5).

The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor; however, the government did not effectively enforce the law, and such practices occurred, predominantly involving migrant workers from South and East Asia employed in construction or domestic work.

Migrant workers were subject to forced labor. Employers routinely held employees’ passports, thus restricting their freedom of movement. While employer passport retention is illegal, few laborers filed complaints. Migrant workers also were subject to nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse. Upon arrival to the country, some foreign workers signed contracts that had lower salaries or involved a different type of work than what was stated in contracts signed in their country of origin, a practice known as “contract switching.” There were reports that some female migrant workers were forced into prostitution.

Some noncitizen domestic and agricultural workers were subject to unpaid labor to repay their employers for hiring expenses, often in the form of forced labor. In most of these cases, workers paid recruitment fees in their country of origin and were responsible for repaying them once beginning work. In some cases, employers withheld payment while workers “repaid” expenses incurred by employers to sponsor the worker; some employers did not pay workers even after these debts were repaid. In other cases, workers who had taken out a loan to pay labor recruiting fees in their home countries arrived in destination countries and spent most or all of their salaries trying to pay either the labor recruiters or loan sharks back, at times trapped in unpleasant or exploitative work environments because of the incumbent debt.

Also see the Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip.

The law prohibits employment of persons younger than 15 years and has special provisions for employing persons between 15 and 18 years. There were separate provisions regarding foreign resident children 16 or older. The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing these regulations and generally enforced them effectively. Unlike in previous years, there were no reports of foreign children who came to the country under their parents’ work permits and subsequently pressured to work. The traditional practice of using Emirati children as camel jockeys continued in some privately held races.

Also see the Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip.

There is no established minimum wage. Salaries, which depended on the occupation and employer, were estimated at around 400 dirhams (approximately $110) per month for domestic or agricultural workers and 600 dirhams (approximately $164) per month for construction workers.

According to the labor law, the workday is eight hours and the work week six days. In practice, some service sector businesses did not provide employees paid annual holidays. Legal provisions requiring overtime pay and prohibition on excessive compulsory overtime exist. However, these provisions only apply to employees under the auspices of the Ministry of Labor and are not enforced. These provisions do not cover workers in domestic services, agriculture and other categories administered by the Ministry of Interior.

Domestic workers fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior and labor laws do not apply to them. The unregulated conditions of domestic workers left them vulnerable to long hours and underpayment.

The law requires employers to provide employees with a safe work and living environment; however, the government did not uniformly enforce health and safety standards during the year, although it did increase monitoring and enforcement of labor laws and regulations. Workers’ jobs were not protected if they removed themselves from what they considered to be unsafe working conditions. In 2010 the Ministry of Labor employed 450 labor inspectors. Inspections of workplaces--primarily construction sites--took place throughout the year, resulting in fines for employers who violated workplace safety or midday break rules. The ministry also employed language interpreters to assist foreign workers in understanding employment guidelines.

The law and regulations provide for minimum rest periods and limits hours worked depending on the nature of the work. The law mandates a 2.5-hour midday work break for most outdoor laborers between June 15 and September 15. The government routinely fined employers for violating the midday break rule and published compliance statistics. However, during July and August, the hottest months of the year, the government exempted oil, asphalt, and cement companies from following the law. In July local press reported that labor inspectors had visited 9,533 firms and had fined 34 firms for violations, reporting 99.7 percent compliance. In addition to being fined between 10,000 and 20,000 dirhams (approximately $2,725-5,450), offenders are barred from obtaining additional work permits for between six months and a year.

During the year the government began implementing changes to the labor code announced in December 2010 that eliminated the requirement that foreign workers who wanted to switch jobs obtain a letter of no objection from their employer. However, the change in regulation did not apply to day laborers, construction workers, or domestic servants.

In January the government amended the labor law to allow employees the option to work without an employment contract or, in cases in which a contract was in force, to change employer sponsors after a maximum of two years (and even within two years in certain cases) in certain employment categories for improved job mobility.

Foreign workers frequently did not receive their wages from employers on time, sometimes for extended periods. However, the government’s implementation of the Wages Protection System (an electronic salary verification system) and fines discouraged employers from not paying salaries to foreign workers under the auspices of the Ministry of Labor. According to a January 9 press report, at least 3.3 million workers received their wages via direct deposit through the Wages Protection System. The estimated 700,000 workers and 40 percent of companies not yet enrolled were reportedly small businesses. The Wages Protection System did not apply for foreign workers under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, including domestic and agricultural workers.

The Ministry of Labor operated a toll-free hotline in Arabic, English, and Urdu through which workers were able to report companies that violated break rules or delayed wage payments.

Despite the Ministry of Labor’s efforts to improve housing facilities, some low-skilled and foreign employees continued to face substandard living conditions, including overcrowded apartments or lodging in unsafe and unhygienic “labor camps,” which sometimes lacked electricity, potable water, and adequate cooking and bathing facilities. Construction of newer worker accommodations was ongoing. Individual emirates enforced their own standards for minimum conditions for labor accommodations.

Reports of migrant worker suicides continued, with reports linking the deaths to poor working conditions, abusive employers, and heavy debts caused by exploitative labor recruitment agencies, as well as by low wages relative to the high cost of living.

During the year the press reported a number of cases in which workers were injured or killed on job sites due to inadequate safety measures. Although the law requires the government to monitor job-related injuries and deaths, in practice the government registered the cases but did not consistently follow up on them, although there was at least one case of a significant court-ordered fine imposed for negligence.

In Abu Dhabi, stricter enforcement of labor safety standards, particularly in the construction industry, appeared to be having an effect on the number of safety violations.

Domestic workers routinely were subject to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. There were reports that employers withheld the passports of their domestic workers; in some cases, they prevented workers from leaving the country. For example, on September 17, local press reported a Filipina housemaid fled her employers’ residence in Umm Al Quwain after she was beaten regularly, burned with a hot iron, and forced to work seven days a week without pay for three years.