Amnesty International Report 2003 - United Arab Emirates

Covering events from January - December 2002

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Head of state: Al-Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan
Head of government: Al-Sheikh Maktum bin Rashid Al-Maktum
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: signed

New and broader security provisions facilitated the arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention of up to 250 United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals. Most remained in detention at the end of the year. The arrests, which began towards the end of 2001, were carried out in the context of combating "terrorism". Some of those detained were reportedly ill-treated. Dozens of people employed by the ministries of justice and education were forcibly retired or transferred as part of an ongoing policy of limiting freedom of expression and association. Asylum-seekers, scores of whom may have faced persecution in their country of origin, were forcibly returned or expelled, some on grounds of national security. Ill-treatment by the authorities was reported during unrest in a prison in Dubai. Sentences of death penalty and flogging continued to be imposed and one execution was reported.

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Political arrests and ill-treatment in detention

Scores, perhaps hundreds, of UAE nationals, including police and teachers arbitrarily arrested by the State Security following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, remained in detention without charge. Most were reportedly held incommunicado. AI repeatedly expressed its concern about their detention to the authorities. While Ministry of Justice officials denied the detentions to AI delegates visiting the country in September, Ministry of Information officials acknowledged the arrest of a large number of people, stating that "it was for their own good". No steps had been taken to bring charges by the end of the year.

There were unconfirmed reports that detainees had been beaten and otherwise ill-treated, including in Khor Fakkan and Ras al-Khaimah. Many were reportedly ordered to sign "undertakings" not to associate with certain groups as a condition for release. Some were reportedly obliged to provide weekly reports detailing their activities for security officials, and members of their families were kept under surveillance.

• 'Ali 'Amish, one of five Libyan nationals detained between May and August 2001, was released and, along with one of the others detained, was forcibly expelled from the UAE. He said he had been subjected to various forms of torture: sleep deprivation; repeated beating with a wooden stick, electric cable or a hose; and suspension by his hands and feet followed by beating on various parts of his body. Another of those detained, 'Abdullah Abu al-Qasim al-Ghazal, died in September 2001 in the custody of security officials. No information was received about the fate of the two other Libyan nationals, 'Ali Bashir and Ahmad Ramadhan Hussain Qanud. The reason for the arrest of the five remained unclear but appeared to be linked to their suspected political activities.

Freedom of expression and association

In July, in an administrative measure widely seen as punitive, 10 judges and 33 teachers were forcibly retired, 24 teachers were transferred to other ministries, and at least two university lecturers were prohibited from teaching. No reason was given for these actions, but AI was concerned that it was linked to the political opinions of those affected.

Refoulement

In February hundreds of Afghan nationals, some of whom had been detained for up to a year, were reported to have been forcibly returned from Dubai to Afghanistan despite an appeal from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to halt their deportation. Their fate following their return to Afghanistan was not known. There was no judicial review of the decision to expel them and UNHCR was denied access to them. Also in February the authorities forcibly expelled two Libyan nationals. One of them, Ahmad Muhammad 'Ali 'Ak'ak, was reportedly detained for four hours at the airport on his arrival in Libya before being allowed into the country.

In April authorities at Dubai airport arrested Sabrina Imtiaz Syed, a Pakistan national aged 25 and a resident of the UAE, who was returning from a trip to Germany. She was taken to an "immigration jail". Her father, who met her in the jail, had reportedly requested that her visa be revoked and that she be sent to Pakistan, where family members had reportedly threatened to kill her for marrying someone in Pakistan against family wishes. She was released and reportedly taken to Pakistan by her mother on 12 May.

Intergovernmental organizations

In March the UAE submitted a report to the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee detailing measures intended to combat "terrorism". These mainly related to financial controls and increased cooperation with international policing bodies, but also referred to the UAE's accession in 1999 to the Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism. AI believes that provisions of the Arab Convention violate international human rights standards.

In May the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child examined the UAE's initial report in respect of its obligations as a state party to the UN Children's Convention. In June, in its Concluding Observations, the Committee welcomed various measures undertaken by the UAE to promote children's rights, but recommended that the government withdraw its reservation to Article 14 of the Convention, under which state parties are to respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The Committee also called on the government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Convention; abolish the imposition of flogging and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment on people who have committed crimes when they were under 18, and ensure that the system of juvenile justice includes juvenile courts and fully integrates the provisions of the Convention. The Committee also expressed serious concern at "the hazardous situation of children involved in camel racing" (see below).

Ill-treatment in prison

Disturbances in Dubai's male prison in February reportedly resulted in injuries to several people. The authorities denied reports that prisoners had died.
On 30 July, following a dispute mainly between prisoners, the authorities reportedly ill-treated prisoners to restore order. An Iranian prisoner reportedly died as a result.

Child labour

In July, in a move to enforce a 1993 law banning the use of boys as camel jockeys, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs reportedly announced that children under the age of 15 would be banned from camel racing. Boys as young as four have reportedly been used as jockeys and some have been seriously injured or killed during races.

Death penalty and cruel judicial punishments

In March a Yemeni national was reportedly executed in Dubai after he was found guilty of killing four of his relatives. In April an appeal court in Dubai upheld the death sentences of Andre Seefred, a Ukrainian national aged 28, and Sergei Doboni, a Russian national aged 24, who had been convicted in February of murdering an Indian national in July 2001. At least 20 individuals were sentenced to be flogged.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited the UAE in February and September. In September the delegates held talks with government and judicial officials.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
Head of state and government: Eduardo Duhalde
Death penalty: abolitionist for ordinary crimes
International Criminal Court: ratified

Hundreds of people were arrested during massive and widespread demonstrations and demonstrators were killed by police in circumstances that suggested that they had been extrajudicially executed. Human rights defenders, journalists and social activists were reportedly harassed and assaulted. Reports of killings and ill-treatment by police continued. During a mass raid on an indigenous community, police ill-treated and racially abused indigenous people. Judicial decisions in Argentina and new initiatives abroad to investigate past human rights violations were announced.

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Background

The economic situation continued to deteriorate as the government tried to satisfy international lending agency conditions. The peso was devalued, cash withdrawals from banks were severely restricted and unemployment rose sharply. There were massive and repeated demonstrations around the country against government policies and public trust in state institutions reached its lowest ebb. The year saw the emergence of new social groups actively involved in public protests, including labour activists, associations of the unemployed and neighbourhood groups. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested for short periods around the country, scores were injured and two demonstrators were killed by police.

Two laws which obstructed judicial investigations into thousands of "disappearances" that took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s – the Full Stop Law and the Law of Due Obedience – remained in force. However, in August the Attorney General supported earlier judicial decisions that they were unconstitutional. A final ruling by the Supreme Court was pending at the end of 2002. In November the Minister of Defence publicly supported the constitutionality of the laws and indicated that the Supreme Court would be taking risks if it agreed that the laws were unconstitutional.

Demonstrations

In June, two protesters were killed by provincial police during a demonstration in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires Province, in what appeared to be extrajudicial executions. Around 90 demonstrators were injured when hundreds of protesters tried to cut off the main road into the capital, Buenos Aires. Demonstrators claimed that police shot at them indiscriminately.

• Dario Santillán was shot inside the Avellaneda railway station while he was trying to help Maximiliano Kosteki who had been shot a few minutes earlier. Both men died of their injuries. An investigation was initiated, two police officers were arrested and several suspended from active duty, after photographs clearly showing police involvement were published nationwide. The photographer, Sergio Kowalewsky, and his family were subjected to death threats. Claudio Pandolfi, the lawyer acting on behalf of the families of the victims, also received death threats.

Indigenous people

In August, members of the provincial police raided homes in the indigenous Toba community in Formosa, Formosa Province, after the death of a policeman and the injury of another in disputed circumstances. According to reports, about 100 police officers carrying firearms destroyed belongings, beat and ill-treated individuals including children and racially abused members of the community. They reportedly had no search warrant, although members of the judiciary were present. Those arrested, including a 74-year-old man, were allegedly tortured or ill-treated.

Past human rights violations

Judicial rulings
In September, federal judge Claudio Bonadio ordered the preventive detention of former General Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri and 25 former members of the armed forces and ordered their assets to be frozen. They were accused of responsibility for the kidnapping, illegal detention, torture, "disappearance" and murder of 20 members of the Montoneros armed group in 1978 and 1980. In his ruling judge Bonadio stated that the Full Stop and Due Obedience Laws, passed in 1986 and 1987 respectively, were unconstitutional and void.

Trial of a human rights defender
In July, Sonia Torres de Parodi, a 73-year-old member of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, who has been searching for her "disappeared" daughter and grandchild since 1976, was brought to trial in Córdoba, Córdoba Province. She faced charges of defamation and slander brought by a former member of staff at the Manuel Belgrano Business School. According to a press interview given by Sonia Torres de Parodi, this member of staff had given the security forces information about students who later "disappeared". In August Sonia Torres de Parodi was acquitted.

New investigation
In October, the US-German car maker DaimlerChrysler set up a commission to examine the conduct of Mercedes-Benz and its officials in Argentina between 1975 and 1978. The commission was expected to investigate the "disappearance" of about 14 workers from the Mercedes-Benz factory – now owned by DaimlerChrysler – at González Catán, Buenos Aires Province, in 1976 and 1977.

Attacks on human rights defenders

Journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, witnesses and relatives of victims were repeatedly harassed, threatened and attacked during the year.

• In September, a group of unidentified men attacked the home of Estela Carlotto, President of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and President of the La Plata provincial Remembrance Commission. She was inside the house when it came under a hail of bullets. A few days earlier, she had submitted to the provincial Supreme Court a report about abusive practices by the provincial police including torture and "trigger-happy" killings. An investigation into the attack was initiated.

Ill-treatment, torture and killings

There were repeated public complaints of ill-treatment of detainees in detention centres, including ill-treatment of minors. There were also killings by police in disputed circumstances.

Children

Committee on the Rights of the Child
In September the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern about the administration of juvenile justice; national legislation on children dating back to 1919; and the frequent failure of provincial legislation to comply with the UN Children's Convention. It raised concerns about institutional violence and reports of torture and ill-treatment of children in police stations, which in some cases had resulted in death. It also raised the issue of "trigger-happy" killings, which had led to the deaths of many children. The Committee recommended that Argentina bring laws and practices governing the juvenile justice system at national and provincial level into full compliance with the Convention. It urged Argentina to enforce a national plan to prevent and eliminate institutional violence; to investigate in an effective manner reports of killings, torture and ill-treatment of children; and to provide programs to rehabilitate, reintegrate and compensate child victims of torture or ill-treatment.

AI country visits

In February AI delegates visited Argentina to meet government officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations and to gather information. In July an AI observer attended hearings related to the trial of a member of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.