Australia in Switzerland
Bern and Geneva
Switzerland, Liechtenstein

statement418

Universal Periodic Review of United Arab Emirates – 15th Session
Statement by Australia
28 January 2013


Australia welcomes the delegation of the United Arab Emirates to the Human Rights Council.

Australia welcomes the United Arab Emirate’s accession to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. We also commend its invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, whose visit to the United Arab Emirates took place in 2012.

We welcome efforts since 2008 to eliminate gender-based discrimination, including citizenship rights for all children of United Arab Emirati women, and recommend that the United Arab Emirates implement further measures to support victims of domestic violence.

We encourage the United Arab Emirates to take further measures to strengthen its human rights framework, including in relation to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and due process. In this regard, we recommend that the United Arab Emirates accede to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its Optional Protocols, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and adopt measures to promote awareness of the rights contained in these instruments.

Consistent with Australia’s universal opposition to the death penalty, we recommend that the United Arab Emirates establish a moratorium on the death penalty, as a first step towards complete abolition of this practice and accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.