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Contents
History Human Rights Violations in the UAE. 2
Effects of Human Rights Violations in the UAE. 4
Comparison between the Human Rights in the UAE with Other Gulf Countries. 5
Introduction
The United Arab Emirates has experienced tremendous economic growth during the last four decades. It is widely viewed as an economic model that other countries can emulate to achieve economic growth and development. However, the conservative structure of government in the UAE creates an environment that is conducive to human rights violations. For example, institutions and officeholders are not democratically elected. Moreover, most of the country’s labor laws give employers extraordinary power over their employees.
The UAE constitution promises equitable treatment for all people regardless of their nationality, social status, and race, while the government routinely emphasizes their view of human rights as a moral, economic, and cultural imperative. The government also expresses its commitment to labor rights by highlighting its membership to various international labor agencies, including the Arab Labor Organization and the International Labor Organization (ILO). Despite these efforts, some serious labor rights violations have been highlighted throughout the country’s history, especially in relation to slave wages and poor working conditions. The aim of this paper is to investigate the development of human rights in the UAE. It focuses on the history of the human rights situation in the country and the effects of human rights violations. Lastly, the paper compares the human rights situation in the UAE with that of other gulf countries.
History Human Rights Violations in the UAE
The United Arab Emirates was founded in 1972 following the coming together of seven emirates to form a federation. Since then, the country has embarked on a path of tremendous socio-economic, political, and cultural development (Shihab, 2001). During this process of growth as a country, the UAE has encountered a number of challenges relating to human rights. This is hardly surprising because it is situated in a region that has traditionally been associated with slavery. For example, in the emirates that ultimately came together to form the federation, slavery continued being practices until 1963 when it was finally abolished (Halabi, 2012). In the neighboring Saudi Arabia, the practice was abolished in 1962.
Since 1972, concerns about slavery in the UAE have been raised despite the fact that the practice was abolished. This link to slavery applies not only to the UAE but also to the wider Persian Gul region of which the country is an integral part. In the UAE, local economy is said to have thrived throughout the 1970s and 1980s on the back of slave labor (Degorge, 2006). As of 1999, 90.4 percent of the workforce in the country was comprised of foreign workers (Sönmez et al., 2011). There is no doubt that many of those workers do not live in the best of conditions. Additionally, concerns about low wages continue to raise as much attention internationally today as they did during the 1970s and 1980s.
The economic boom that was experienced during the last four decade provided economic incentives for both the UAE and the countries that sent workers to work in the country’s thriving service and construction industries. Unfortunately, these incentives came hand in hand with highly restrictive contract systems that easily bound workers to their employers, thereby creating an environment that made it possible for involuntary servitude and exploitation to thrive. All along, these systems have been hard-hitting particularly for female workers who have migrated into the country in search of employment as domestic workers (Halabi, 2012). During this time, workers in the construction industry also been complaining of unfair treatment by their employers.
An upsurge in levels of human rights violations occurred in the wake of the recent global economic crisis, which triggered a slowdown in the UAE’s construction boom. Since 2010, many people in the UAE have experienced a turn for the worse in terms of human rights. Migrant workers have particularly been hard-hit by this situation following a slowdown in the construction sector especially in Dubai (Kanna, 2011). Some of the human rights violations that have led to growing concerns since 2010 include lack of freedom of expression, torture, and violations of the rights of women. Moreover, authorities have continued to prevent people from engaging in peaceful demonstrations. The government has covertly stepped up efforts to harass human rights activists operating in the country.
Traditionally, the Saudi judicial system has tended to operate at the whim of the royal family. The royal family is so powerful that it can overturn court decisions at will. This lack of independence in the judiciary creates a situation where many innocent people end up being convicted of crimes while those who are guilty are set free. For many years, this situation has continued to portray a negative image of the country’s human rights situation despite the fact that the UAE is by comparison to other Arab countries a much better defender of citizens’ human rights.
Effects of Human Rights Violations in the UAE
Following decades of accusations of human rights violations, UAE has suffered immensely in terms of a tarnished reputation, loss of attractiveness as a business hub, and growing criticism by international human rights organizations such as the Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, 2011). Presently, pressure is mounting on the UAE to revise the country’s labor laws, which give employers extraordinary power over workers’ lives including the power to withhold all their travel documents.
For workers, the effects of such human rights abuses has been devastating. Their inability to bargain collectively or to go on strike means that employers pay them meagre wages and in some cases even choose to withhold those wages. In 2009, the UAE government responded to this situation by introducing an electronic payment system that companies must use to pay wages and salaries through licensed banks as a way of ensuring that payments are made on time. Despite the introduction of this system, many UAE companies continue to withhold employees’ salaries.
Moreover, workers in the country are routinely subjected to unsafe working conditions. The situation worsened following the global economic crisis in 2008 when tens of thousands of foreign workers lost their jobs and ended up being trapped in camps, where it was difficult to get basic amenities such as clothing, food, and sanitation. By 2010, many laid-off workers were going for months without running water or electricity. Others had to resort to sleeping in secluded areas of cities near garbage heaps. Those who were fortunate enough to be retained in the labor force were compelled to either take a pay cut or face dismissal. Despite the reduction in wages, workers continued being subjected long working hours, exploitation, harassment, and delays in the payment of wages.
Comparison between the Human Rights in the UAE with Other Gulf Countries
The human rights situation in the UAE is better than in other gulf countries. This is simply because the country promotes its identity in terms of Westernization. It portrays itself as a gulf country that has embraced Westernization. For this reason, it opens itself up for scrutiny by Western human rights agencies. By Western standards, the UAE has a poor human rights record. However, this record is far better than that of other gulf countries that do not promote themselves as Westernized societies. Those other gulf countries, for example Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen, selfishly guard a conservative mien in a manner that allows for very brutal forms of human rights violations to continue unabated. In the UAE, pressure from Western governments has led to the introduction of numerous reforms with a view to abate serious human rights violations.
Nevertheless, many of the human rights violations that have been identified in the UAE are also being perpetuated in other gulf countries. Some of these violations include human rights violations of foreign nationals, forced disappearances, torture in custody, and denial of a right to a speedy trial (Human Rights Watch, 2011). Others include punishment through stoning and flogging, local media censorship, and violation of women’s rights (Halabi, 2012). There is also a tendency by gulf countries to refrain from signing important international labor rights and human rights treaties. Moreover, most human rights violations tend to be perpetuated through the countries’ judicial system, which derives from either Sharia law alone or a mix of sharia law and the civil law system. In Saudi Arabia, the judicial system derives from both sharia law and the civil law system.
Conclusion
The United Arab Emirates has made major inroads on the economic front during the last four decades. However, its history of human rights violations particularly in the labor market continues to create a negative impression of this gulf nation in the international community. As it turns out, the UAE has a history of slavery and a poor human rights record, which rhymes with the situation in the neighboring gulf countries. However, UAE’s situation is different because the state promotes itself as a Westernized gulf state. In conclusion, the UAE still has a long way to go in terms of developing its human rights regime to reach the standards of its Western counterparts.
References
Degorge, B. (2006). Modern Day Slavery in the United Arab Emirates. The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms, 11(6), 657-666.
Halabi, R. (2012). Contract Enslavement of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. London: Routledge.
Human Rights Watch (2011). Country Summary: United Arab Emirates. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch.
Kanna, A. (2011). Dubai, the City as Corporation. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Shihab, M. (2001). Economic Development in the UAE. London: Heinemann.
Sönmez, S., Apostopoulos, Y., Tran, D. & Rentrope, S. (2011). Human rights and health disparities for migrant workers in the UAE. Health and Human Rights, 13(2), 17-35.
