Human Rights Watch targets Human Rights in the UAE
Human Rights Watch released in Dubai last week its annual World Human Rights Report 2010, which along with 3 other countries, includes a chapter on the state of human rights in the United Arab Emirates.
The chapter covers a range of human rights issues, including press freedom, human trafficking, the rights of detained persons and torture. On labour issues, HRW claims that the economic crisis has had a negative effect upon the conditions for workers and criticises local companies for sending staff on ‘unpaid vacations’ when the downturn slowed, or in many cases brought to a halt, construction.
The chapter goes on to echo many of the criticisms made by HRW in their Tears on the Island of Happiness Report, released in May 2009, including:
- Visa sponsorship regulations restricting movement of workers.
- Lack of legal provision to protect workers right to strike and bargain collectively.
- Recruitment agencies frequently charging workers fees to get their job and the lack of a legal framework to criminally try those who engage in this practice.
- The presence of legal provisions which punish workers for going on strike.
The response to the report by the Government of the UAE has largely been one of dismay and criticism – it is said the report is not only “unbalanced” but also “factually incorrect”. A spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the report “…fails to adequately record the positive steps taken by the UAE with regard to labour and human trafficking issues not just in 2009, also in the last few years”.
The main initiatives which the Government claims HRW have ignored in their report are: the ratification of the UN protocols on Disabled Persons and Human Trafficking, the creation of three new Government human rights related institutions (the Human Rights Department (Ministry of Interior) Dubai Community Development Authority and a permanent taskforce of specialists to tackle human trafficking in Dubai) and the opening of a shelter for women and children in Abu Dhabi.
HRW does recognise that new legal standards on worker accommodation have been introduced, but Impactt note that there is no mention of the Wage Protection Scheme introduced last year, where workers are paid into bank accounts rather than directly in cash by their employers. While the scheme is still being rolled out, and has not been without its problems, it will ultimately deliver results for workers and should be acknowledged.
While there is no doubt that there remains plenty of work to be done for migrant workers in the UAE, to your average reader the chapter could come across as one-sided and HRW potentially weakens its position by not recognising the high profile initiatives underway.
Furthermore, HRW sadly provides little transparency on when or how the information in the report was collected. It puts itself at risk of sounding like it is rehashing old information, rather than using up to date and evidence.
Despite these weaknesses Impactt welcomes HRW’s ongoing reporting of the issues in the UAE. The organisation rightly reports that no country has a perfect human rights record and that the purpose of the report is to highlight ongoing issues to Governments and compel them to action – something Impactt is always supportive of!
1 Comment
Thanks for sharing Martin. It appears that where the improvement of human rights is the ultimate goal, there is always a tricky balance to mainain. As you describe yourself, acknowledging and supporting the actions that some governments have taken to protect human rights is incredibly important otherwise NGOs are considered one-sided and unnecessarily adversarial, always wanting to pick a fight. Equally important, however, is the importance of continuing to remind governments of their responsibility to protect the human rights of workers in their country whom they are reliant on for economic growth. Migrant workers and those working in low paid jobs whose rights often fail to be protected must be seen as more than economic units of labour but as humans whose rights must be recognised and protected. Keep the updates coming through!