Introduction
The United Arab Emirates is often accused of violating human rights in a variety of significant and dangerous ways. The nation’s denial of freedom of expression and religion, as well as its discrimination against women and the punishment of same-sex intercourse with the death penalty, are among the most prominent issues. Moreover, many of these concerns are not endemic to the country but rather prevalent across many Islamic Middle Eastern nations.
On the other hand, the United States is generally seen as highly protective of human rights, serving as a world leader in their promotion. There are still issues in the nation, but they are minor compared to those in the UAE, and lawmakers are working to address them. As such, a comparison between the two nations would be highly beneficial to determine how significant the differences are and why they occur.
UAE Overview
The United Arab Emirates is a Middle Eastern nation that consists of seven smaller states whose sheiks constitute the highest ruling body. These leaders are not elected, but people can participate in the appointment of a part of the Federal National Council, an advisory body. Islam is the UAE’s national religion and features prominently in law and government practices. According to “2018 Country Reports,” the nation’s human rights violations include denial of personal freedom, gender discrimination, the criminalization of homosexuality, harm to civilians during military operations, a lack of government choice, and others.
These issues are part of a lengthy trend that does not appear to be changing significantly over time. Overall, personal freedoms and gender-based discrimination warrant detailed mention, while other issues can be discussed in a shorter format.
Personal Freedoms
The UAE’s restriction of personal freedoms is extensive but can be condensed to two primary topics: speech and religion. The government punishes criticism harshly and works to prevent rhetoric that highlights the negative aspects of its performance. “United Arab Emirates” discusses several cases where critics were imprisoned for criticisms and comments on Twitter for periods between ten years and life. Moreover, the government owns most traditional information outlets, ensuring that they are discouraged from opposing the official policy, and sets stringent and arbitrary restrictions on speech online (“2018 Country Reports”).
Examples include supporting registered political movements that disagree with the government or nations with which it has tensions. Moreover, the government has been known to detain people who have served their sentences for purposes of convenience.
While the UAE does not prohibit the practice of religions other than Islam, it inhibits their functioning and spreading. According to the “2018 Report on International Religious Freedom,” two prominent concerns are the prohibition of converting from Islam set in sharia and the prominent anti-Semitism in the nation.
Blasphemy is illegal, and many Islamic notions, such as the prohibition of extramarital sex, are in effect regardless of one’s denomination, though non-citizens can request the laws of their home country to apply. With that said, worship is permitted as long as it does not contradict public morals, but the ambiguity of this statement has led to restrictions on group worship (“2018 Report on International Religious Freedom”). Overall, while people in the UAE are generally free to worship privately, public religion is regulated strictly to protect and spread Islam.
Gender-Based Discrimination
Islam is known for its opposition to the notion of gender equality as established in Western morality. As “United Arab Emirates” notes, there is no law against sex and gender-based discrimination in UAE, women are dependent on men in all aspects of marriage, and domestic violence and marital rape are not illegal. Women cannot marry without the consent of a male guardian or work without the permission of their husband and are obliged to obey their spouses in all matters, including sexual relations.
Men can marry up to four women and divorce them at any time while women cannot do the former and have to obtain a court order to do the latter. Overall, in UAE law, women appear to be mostly subservient to men, a situation that likely reflects a strongly patriarchal society. Moreover, this legislation is frequently applied in reality, while laws that protect women are ignored, as a variety of recent examples can show.
Rape, abuse, and economic discrimination are particularly prevalent in the UAE, with a variety of recent cases demonstrating issues. According to “2018 Country Reports,” domestic abuse and rape cases rarely go to court with few convictions, and the victims risk prosecution for consensual sex outside of marriage instead of receiving help. The burden of proof for rape is high, and if the courts acknowledge the sexual encounter but not its nonconsensual nature, the victim can be punished instead.
As such, women tend to be significantly disadvantaged in legal cases and often have to endure abuse as a result. “2018 Country Reports” also mentions barriers to promotions and pay increases for women, especially non-citizens, who also are sometimes sexually assaulted or raped by their superiors. In conclusion, gender discrimination in the UAE is severe in many spheres of life and constitutes a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Other Issues
The UAE has a highly traditional view of sexuality, at least in the law. According to “2018 Country Reports,” both sharia and civil law punish same-sex intercourse with death and sentences of up to 14 years, respectively, wearing sex-inappropriate clothing is illegal, and sex reassignment surgery is highly regulated. As a result, it is challenging for LGBTI people to live openly in the nation, though they may be tolerated as long as their activities do not become public.
Human trafficking is another prominent concern, for purposes of both sex and labor. “2019 Trafficking in Persons Report” claims that though the government is making efforts to address sex trafficking, it does not address forced labor and generally falls below the minimum requirements for eliminating the crime. As such, both situations remain prominent sources of concern about the human rights of the victims.
The government also displays a tendency to detain and mistreat people, often without sufficient cause for the original arrest. “United Arab Emirates” discusses lengthy detainments of activists in unknown locations with no access to a lawyer, allegations of abuse and torture of terrorism suspects, and the discrimination of HIV patients in prisons. In addition to this pretrial treatment, which violates human rights in several different manners, trials in the UAE are not necessarily fair, especially for non-citizens. “2018 Country Reports” highlights the case of a doctor who was convicted of criminal medical malpractice without being present at the trial or informed of it and then arrested by the police.
Moreover, the judicial system lacks independence from the government, with many judges being potentially subject to deportation and court decisions being subject to political leadership review (“2018 Country Reports”). Overall, people who attract the attention of the government cannot necessarily expect humane treatment by the police or a fair trial.
U.S. Overview
The United States is located in North America and consists of fifty states as well as some territories that have special statuses. Each of these territories elects its local leadership, and the states form a two-level parliament and vote for the President via a weighted system. All government officials are either elected by citizens or appointed by others, sometimes after additional review. The country does not have a national religion, but most of its population is Christian.
The U.S., generally seen as a country where human rights are strongly valued, is one of the founders of the United Nations. However, there are some concerns about its management of human rights, particularly with regard to vulnerable populations. A topic-by-topic comparison with the United Arab Emirates is warranted to identify the similarities and differences between the two nations.
Personal Freedoms
Freedom of speech and religion are highly valued in the United States, being the topic of the First Amendment to the nation’s Constitution. People are allowed to express their opinions with a small number of restrictions, such as a ban on defamation and incitement to violence. Similarly, they are allowed to practice any religion, but religious practices that would be considered illegal acts under the law remain as such.
However, “United States” mentions that journalists and lawyers are affected in their ability to work by the nation’s large-scale surveillance program. By finding sensitive information, the government obtains leverage over these people that it may use to pressure them to self-censor. Overall, however, the situation surrounding the two rights discussed in this section is significantly less severe in the U.S. than in the UAE.
Gender-Based Discrimination
There are some concerns over gender equality in the United States, though they may be exaggerated. Ortenblad et al. mention the nation’s refusal to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All of Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the UN’s opinion that women are not adequately represented in the country. Concerns such as the gender pay gap and other potential forms of discrimination are the subjects of considerable discussion in the nation. One popular counterargument to the claims above is that women have equal opportunities, and their outcomes will eventually become similar to those of men.
Anzalone provides the example of a case where an appeals court decided that an employer always had to promote a woman over a man if their qualifications were equal as an example of an overreaction. Overall, while there are legitimate concerns over the position of women in the U.S., their position is better than in the UAE in almost all aspects.
Other Issues
There were some concerns over the U.S.’s attitude toward homosexuality, but they have been mostly rectified now. According to Ortenblad et al., the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional has legalized the practice across the nation. Human trafficking exists in the U.S., as it is extremely challenging to eliminate, but the nation takes extensive and successful efforts to prevent and punish the crime. “United States” highlights concern over the country’s harsh sentences, poor conditions in jails, torture, indefinite detention, foreign assassinations, and unfair trials of terrorism suspects. Overall, while the U.S. observes human rights better than the UAE in many issues, it exhibits similarly poor performance in other aspects, if for different reasons.
Reasons for the Differences
Legal
As discussed above, many human rights are embedded into the Constitution of the United States, the legal document with the highest authority in the nation. As a result, decisions based on the interpretation of the document can overrule other laws that may violate human rights. As a result, as long as it is possible to prove that particular human rights violations are against what is written in the Constitution, those practices will be prevented.
The UAE is different in this aspect because it follows Islamic law, which is based on religious principles. According to Esmaeili et al., it is challenging to reconcile the freedoms of expression and religion and Islam because of the latter’s treatment of blasphemy and apostasy as severe crimes against God. To enable these rights within the current legal system, the UAE would have to follow the letter of the law but not its spirit, as it technically does not prescribe specific punishments for these crimes.
Religious
The United States is majority Christian, but its adherents are split into a large variety of denominations that disagree on numerous aspects of the religion. As a result, they have learned to tolerate each other as well as other religions and schools of thought. Americans tend to have little difficulty accepting differences in opinion regarding religion. On the other hand, the UAE is mostly Muslim, with the religion being split into two significant denominations that are often in conflict. Islam is known for its aggressive approach to other religions, and attempts by Muslims to abandon religion or convert to another are punishable with the death penalty in the UAE (Esmaeili et al.). Overall, Islam in its current form appears to be substantially less conducive to the Western concept of human rights than Christianity.
Historical
The United States is significantly older than the UAE, which has consolidated into a nation in the second half of the 20th century. As such, the U.S. has had more time to refine its approach to human rights, which it did not apply adequately by modern standards from the beginning. Tushnet et al. discuss the Sedition Act of 1798, which featured many provisions that are similar to the UAE’s current ban on criticism and was never ruled unconstitutional despite the First Amendment. Besides, Morton suggests that the origins of human rights in British common law may have been a factor in the Gulf nation’s refusal to adopt them due to the strong anti-British sentiment that surrounded its formation. As such, the UAE may begin guaranteeing human rights in the future, particularly if pressured internationally to do so.
Conclusion
Overall, the U.S. is not perfect in its provision of human rights, but it performs substantially better than the UAE. The Gulf nation restricts the freedoms of speech and religion and deprives women of many abilities while also subjecting them to discrimination and abuse, both physical and sexual.
There is also a variety of other issues, though the government has been making some steps to improve the situation. By comparison, potential instances of human rights violations are smaller in scale and often challenging to quantify due to their indirect nature. The laws of the two nations and the religions that influenced them can explain most of the difference. Islam is less conducive to human rights than Christianity, and UAE law relies on it heavily. However, with time, the UAE may evolve to accommodate human rights, particularly if pressured to do so.
Works Cited
“2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: United Arab Emirates.” U.S. Department of State. Web.
“2018 Report on International Religious Freedom: United Arab Emirates.” U.S. Department of State. Web.
“2019 Trafficking in Persons Report: United Arab Emirates.” U.S. Department of State. Web.
“United Arab Emirates: Events of 2019.” Human Rights Watch. Web.
“United States.” Human Rights Watch. Web.
Anzalone, Christopher A., editor. U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Gender and Sexual Equality. Routledge, 2015. E-book.
Esmaeili, Hossein, et al. The Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression and Islamic Law. Bloomsbury, 2017. E-book.
Morton, Michael Quentin. Keepers of the Golden Shore: A History of the United Arab Emirates. Reaktion Books, 2016. E-book.
Ortenblad, Anders, et al., editors. Gender Equality in a Global Perspective. Routledge, 2017. E-book.
Tushnet, Mark, et al. The First Amendment. 5th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2016. E-book.