In August 2019, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) submitted a report to the Committee against Torture ahead of the Committee’s review of the United Arab Emirates. In the report, ADHRB examined how Emirati security forces torture and abuse detainees both within the United Arab Emirates as well as in secret prisons run by and controlled by Emirati forces in Yemen.
In particular, the report highlights how the UAE promulgated laws that ostensibly forbid and prohibit the use of torture by security forces, but that security forces flout these laws, and abuse and mistreat detainees. Among the forms of torture that Emirati officials employ is the use of solitary confinement, the prolonged use of which has been ruled a form of torture. The report uses Ahmed Mansoor’s situation as an example; Mansoor is a prominent human rights defender who has been in solitary confinement for long periods. The report also looks at how Emirati forces run, oversee, and support prisons in southern Yemen, where prison officials engage in widespread and systematic torture, including sexual torture of detainees.
