United Arab Emirates Expanding Role in Promoting International Human Rights
The Human Rights Council’s sub-branches, the Freedom of Conscience and United Villages organisations, have both congratulated the UAE after it hosted on Monday a side event for the 52nd session of the Council.
The side event, specifically organised by the Arab-European Forum for Dialogue and Human Rights, was a symposium with a panel of figures influential in the ongoing fight for human rights. The discussion’s central themes were ‘Leadership Challenges and Future Foresight’. Key topics within those overarching themes included climate justice, global peace, and how best countries such as the UAE can effectively protect human rights and freedoms.
Among the organisations whose members were represented at the event were Freedom of Conscience, the European Association for the Defense of Minorities, the World Council for Public Diplomacy and Community Dialogue, and the International Movement for Peace and Tolerance.
The UAE has become a beacon for environmental protection and human rights in the Middle East. Since becoming the first Middle Eastern state to commit to the articles of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement at COP21 held in Paris, the country has consistently pointed out that more must be done to protect communities likely to be hit hardest by climate change’s ongoing impact.
World Leaders at the COP21 Paris Summit, site of the Paris Climate Agreement’s signing. (UN)
Beyond intent, the UAE has continued to implement organisations and the infrastructure to improve the global human standard of living. $100 billion has been invested by the UAE in clean energy initiatives, whose focus has been advancing and implementing renewable energy technology in the Middle East and in developing countries in need of cleaner, more reliable energy grids. The UAE has also established a national Counseling Centre to ensure its own correctional institutions follow the highest standards of justice.
The nation has been diligent to review its own human rights standards before advising other nations on their conduct.
The UAE’s human rights laws are modelled on the Paris Principles adopted by the UN in 1993, and a growing number of inviolable human rights protections have been signed into the UAE Constitution.
The UAE National Human Rights Institution, an independent body tasked with monitoring the protection of human rights in the UAE, was passed into federal law in May 2021. The Institution held its 12th meeting on March 9, ahead of the publication of the fourth national human rights report, and committed to further strengthening cooperation with the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights Mechanism.
The National Human Rights Institution at its 12th meeting. (The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation)
The UAE has also commissioned a Human Rights Commission Shadow Report to review its human rights, due to be explored at the Freedom of Conscience’s 43rd session, which takes place from May 1 to May 12 2023. 13 organisations will publish their findings on the state of human rights in the UAE, and how their model can improve human rights throughout the Arab World and across the globe.
Outside its borders, the UAE has become more and more vocal in the international human rights dialogue in recent years. The UAE’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al-Jarman, headed the UAE delegation to the 52nd Human Rights Council on February 27. He delivered a statement during the session, outlining progress in the UAE and its expanding role on the global human rights stage.
The Permanent Mission of the UAE in Geneva has announced it will hold a briefing at COP28, which will be hosted by the UAE. The UAE has already made clear that the Climate Summit will have a secondary focus on the human impact of climate change, and what must be done to protect the vulnerable.
Information in this article comes from sources that include The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, The Emirates News Agency, Freedom of Conscience and Geneva Press Club.
Images via The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation and the UN.