Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Tag: UAE

Dawn’s Advocacy

DAWN to U.S. Congress: End Support for Abusive Governments in the MENA Region

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 2: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the March jobs report in the State Dining Room of the White House on April 2, 2021 in Washington, DC. According to the U.S. Labor Department, employers added over 900,000 jobs in March, up from 416,000 in February. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Democracy In Exile

Biden Needs a Middle East-Wide Human Rights Policy

Sharjar, UAE, May 2006: A portrait of a migrant labourer in an area close to Dubai where he is installing a well for ongoing construction. He is one of over a million construction workers working in Dubai. These sites are filled with construction labourers in Dubai live in labour camps.The camps are often over 2 hours away and the workers have just finished a 12 hour shift. The majority of labourers come to Dubai from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These workers operate in extreme temperatures in the desert climate, the majority earning under $200 a month. Many have to spend a third of that sum on food provided at the camps as part of their contract. Most sign recruitment contracts in their own countries which take them into debt for many years. Their passports are held by their employers once they reach the UAE and if the company owners abscond the workers are often abandoned without their documents or due payment. Over two thirds of the Dubai population is migrant labour with 1.1 million working in construction. Dubai is currently second only to Shanghai in terms of the scale of construction underway on a 24 hour basis. All this is woefully underscrutinised by the Ministry of Labour, there are currently only 80 government inspectors for over 200 000 construction companies. Recently there have been rumblings of discontent from the workers, with strikes at numerous sites over the non-payment of wages and harsh working conditions. In 2005, according to Human Rights Watch, there were 84 suicides by construction workers in Dubai. Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images.

Democracy In Exile

The UAE: Perpetuating an Unsustainable Pecking Order

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (L) speaks with UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (C) as Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa (R) looks on following a meeting with foreign ministers and military officials from the Saudi-led coalition, in Riyadh on October 29, 2017.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday accused Iran of blocking peace efforts in Yemen, slamming its political archrival over support for the Yemeni rebels Riyadh is fighting against. / AFP PHOTO / FAYEZ NURELDINE (Photo credit should read FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)

Democracy In Exile

The UAE's Tactical Withdrawal from a Strategic Engagement in Yemen

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: Newly-appointed Saudi King Abdullah greets people in Riyadh 03 August 2005. Abdullah vowed to work for justice and serve his people in his first address to the nation after succeeding his late half-brother king Fahd. "I pledge to God, and then I pledge to you that I take the Koran as my constitution, Islam as my programme and to work for justice and serve all citizens without discrimination," he said on state television. AFP PHOTO/HASSAN AMMAR (Photo credit should read HASSAN AMMAR/AFP via Getty Images)

Democracy In Exile

Discretionary Death Penalties in Saudi Arabia Make a Bad Situation Even Worse

February 17, 2021

IBB, YEMEN - DECEMBER 16: Yemeni students are seen listening to their teacher inside a wreckage of their school, at Ar Radmah district of Ibb, Yemen on December 16, 2019. Yemeni children, living in the district of the Ibb province in the south of capital Sanaa are trying to continue their education in the shadow of the war at the classrooms without heating stoves and benches. Due to the ongoing civil war and conflicts for almost 5 years, lots of schools in the city have been damaged or ruined. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

DAWN Joins Mark Ruffalo and 20 Organizations to Urge the EU to Stop Selling Weapons to Saudi Arabia and UAE

February 11, 2021

A general view shows the Dubai court where an appeal was upheld on February 17, 2008 for two 15-year jail terms handed down against two Emiratis convincted of raping a French-Swiss teenager. AFP PHOTO/KARIM SAHIB (Photo credit should read KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Democracy In Exile

Legal Reform in the UAE? Don't Let Looks Deceive You

February 8, 2021

TUNIS, TUNISIA - JANUARY 24: Protesters congregate outside the formerly feared Interior Ministry on Avenue Habib Bourguiba on January 24, 2011 in Tunis, Tunisia. Protesters from the countryside and the hamlet of Sidi Bouzid, the town where the 'Jasmine Revolution' started, walked through the night to descend on the prime minsiters office where they tore down razor wire barricades. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Democracy In Exile

Tunisia 10 Years After the Arab Spring: A Success Story Threatened by UAE and Saudi Arabia

January 15, 2021

Constitutional Lawyer Mohammad al-Roken Asked for Reform in the UAE But Got 10 Years in Prison Instead

December 21, 2020

A picture taken from a UAE military vehicle on August 8, 2018 during a trip in Yemen organised by the UAE's National Media Council (NMC) shows Yemeni soldiers loyal to the Saudi and UAE-backed government riding armed pickups through a mountain road north of the southeastern city of Mukalla, the capital Hadramawt province. (Photo by KARIM SAHIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Democracy In Exile

The UAE Arms Deal: In Search of Security or more Instability?

December 14, 2020

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