The ICJ, together with 22 other civil society organizations and individuals, called on speakers at the United Arab Emirates’ World Tolerance Summit to be held on 13 and 14 November 2019 to withdraw from the event.
“The Summit, which purportedly aims to “strengthen the UAE’s position as a model of co-existence and cultural tolerance around the world,” effectively serves to conceal the UAE’s dismal human rights record,” the ICJ says.
The Emirati government has systematically repressed the exercise of fundamental human rights, including the exercise of freedom of expression by human rights defenders and other critical voices, and has committed other violations of international human rights law, including arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment and denial of the right to a fair trial.
As determined by the UN Group of Eminent Experts on the situation of Human Rights in Yemen, the UAE bears significant responsibility for many of the violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the conflict in Yemen, including unlawful killings arising from direct and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and those resulting from restrictions on humanitarian aid, as well as enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings.
UAE-Tolerance Summit-Advocacy-open letters-2019-ENG (full text of open letter in English, PDF)
UAE-Tolerance Summit-Advocacy-open letters-2019-ARA (full text of open letter in Arabic, PDF)