United Arab Emirates Country Report
- Genocide Watch
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Karolina Bonde
Genocide Watch
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates established in 1971. The UAE bans political parties, and hereditary rulers retain concentrated political power, with Abu Dhabi holding the presidency since the federation’s founding. The UAE is an authoritarian state with severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly.
Political dissidents, human rights defenders, migrant workers, women, and queer people face systematic discrimination and repression. In 2024, the UAE conducted the “UAE 84” mass trial, convicting at least 44 defendants, including human rights advocates, lawyers, and academics. Forty received life sentences. Many had already served sentences connected to the earlier “UAE 94” political trial in 2013. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned the proceedings as politically motivated and lacking due process. Authorities conducted trials behind closed doors amid allegations of torture and denial of legal representation.
Migrant workers constitute approximately 88% of the UAE’s population and workforce, but they remain excluded from key labor protections. The kafala system ties workers’ legal status to employers, increasing vulnerability to wage theft, passport confiscation, forced labor, and general abuse. Trade unions remain banned, leaving workers with no means of collective bargaining and almost no path to improve their conditions. Recruiters or employers typically fix wages at the point of recruitment, and wages rarely rise, trapping low-income migrants in cycles of debt and poverty with little realistic prospect of upward mobility. In 2021, authorities reportedly arrested and deported hundreds of Black African migrant workers during racially targeted raids despite many holding valid visas.
Women remain subject to discriminatory laws affecting marriage, divorce, custody, and nationality rights. Marital rape is not criminalized, and male guardians retain significant authority over female family members. Human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation remains a serious concern. Same-sex relations are criminalized under UAE law, and the gender expression of trans people is also criminalized. Sentences include a maximum penalty of death.
The UAE has also faced growing international scrutiny for its alleged role in Sudan’s civil war. Investigators have accused the UAE of supporting Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which observers have accused of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against non-Arab groups in Darfur, including the Masalit, Zaghawa, and Fur communities. A United Nations Panel of Experts described allegations of UAE arms transfers to the RSF as “credible” and found evidence of violations of the Darfur arms embargo. Significant economic interest, primarily gold, underpins the UAE's involvement in Sudan. In 2024, the UAE was Sudan's biggest export market, with gold accounting for over 91% of $1.6 billion in purchases. Analysts argue this access to gold, alongside the UAE's pursuit of Red Sea port infrastructure, explains its backing of the RSF.
In 2025, Sudan initiated proceedings against the UAE before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging complicity in genocide through military, financial, and political support to the RSF. The ICJ later dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds after finding the UAE had entered a reservation to Article IX of the Genocide Convention, making no finding on the merits.
Due to the systematic exclusion of migrant workers, women, LGBTQ+ people, and refugees from basic legal protections, and the denial of political rights to the approximately 90% of the population who are non-citizens, Genocide Watch considers the UAE to be at Stage 3: Discrimination. Due to the UAE's alleged arming of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan in violation of UN arms embargoes, enabling a militia accused of committing genocide against the Masalit people of Darfur, and the operation of the State Security Agency as an organized apparatus of surveillance, arbitrary detention, and torture against perceived opponents, Genocide Watch considers the UAE to be at Stage 5: Organization.
Genocide Watch recommends:
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention should formally review the cases of political prisoners held in the UAE84 and UAE94 mass trials, and the UAE should release all individuals detained for peaceful expression in accordance with its findings.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) should open a formal complaint procedure against the UAE over its kafala system, pressing for the abolition of employer-tied sponsorship and the extension of minimum wage, union, and overtime protections to migrant workers.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Girls and Femicide should formally request the UAE to criminalize marital rape and repeal guardianship provisions permitting the "discipline" of wives and female relatives, as part of the UAE's Universal Periodic Review commitments.
The UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity should call on the UAE to decriminalize consensual same-sex relations and adopt anti-discrimination protections, raising the issue at the UAE's next Universal Periodic Review.
The UN Security Council's Sudan Sanctions Committee (1591) should designate UAE entities and individuals that transfer arms or financing to the RSF. Member states should suspend arms export licenses to the UAE pending independent verification that such transfers have ceased.
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