The UAE's long-standing commitment to human rights

The UAE has expressed its unwavering commitment to promoting and protecting human rights within the domestic legal framework, stressing it's commitment to continue serving as a pioneering model for change in the region, as well as an active member of the international community.

The Human Rights Council should be celebrated as one of the only multilateral vehicles today to discuss, deliberate and, most importantly, address human rights violations around the world.

It is the UAE’s third time being elected since the Council was established in 2006, and the country will serve as part of the Asia-Pacific Group to ensure the voices of underrepresented states will be heard.

When a state becomes a member of the Human Rights Council, it must outline commitments to guide its work. Among its commitments, the UAE has resolved to further empower women, promote and protect the rights of children, improve the quality of life of senior citizens and advance the rights of people of determination.

Safeguarding the right to education, healthcare, and economic empowerment are pillars of the UAE’s approach to securing peace and prosperity around the world. It is only by working together to eradicate discrimination, extremism, poverty and inequality that we may begin to achieve our shared vision for a better world.

The UAE became the 19th country in the Middle East to establish a new national human rights institution (NHRI) when it passed Federal Law No. 12 in May 2021.

Rather than an attempt to align the UAE with international conceptions of human rights, however, the official Emirates News Agency (WAM) emphasized that the NHRI would serve as a locally developed institution.

WAM cited multiple experts in the human rights field who argued that the field of human rights must be localized, rather than imported from abroad. Indeed, many point to human rights regimes themselves as a form of “meddling” in states’ internal affairs.

While the UAE says it abides by an international human rights agenda, the implicit argument is that human rights concerns must remain contingent on a territorial entity’s particular socio-political context. The NHRI focuses on all aspects of human rights in the UAE, including the rights of women, children, those of people of special needs, laborer and workers, among other things.