DECISION ON UAE'S FIRST HUMAN RIGHTS NGO IMMINENT

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 000373

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR DRL, NEA/RA AND NEA/ARPI

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM AE
SUBJECT: DECISION ON UAE'S FIRST HUMAN RIGHTS NGO IMMINENT



1. (SBU) The UAE Government is apparently close to announcing
that it will allow a domestic human rights organization to
operate for the first time. On February 6, the English-daily
'Gulf News' reported that the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs had approved the first human rights organization in
the UAE, but the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Ali
bin Abdullah al-Kaabi, told the Ambassador that the press
announcement was premature, and that the application was
still under review by the ministry.


2. (SBU) The head of the organization's founding committee,
Mohamed Fahd al-Dehim, told PolOff that the Ministry of Labor
and Social Affairs had informed him that his organization,
the UAE Commission for Human Rights, would indeed be approved
within the next several days, and that the provisional Board
of Governors had already begun to draft the charter of the
organization. He added that the basis for the draft charter
will primarily be the UN Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, along with the European and American Conventions on
Human Rights. The stated goal of the organization will be to
raise awareness of human rights as provided in the UAE
Constitution and the UN Convention on Human Rights, and to
work within existing legal channels to increase human rights
within the country and make federal laws compatible with the
international human rights conventions.


3. (SBU) Post will follow up septel with a more thorough
analysis of the UAEG's apparently imminent decision to allow
a human rights NGO to operate, as well as reactions to the
announcement from human rights activists, some of whom are
hopeful that their long-pending NGO applications will also be
approved.
SISON