Middle East & North Africa

ICRC: UAE judicial systems conform with International Human Rights Law

ABU DHABI, Dec 11 2017 - The International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, has praised the UAE’s commitment to protection of human rights and ensuring the continual improvement of its judicial laws and practices in line with the basic rules of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.

In a statement to Emirates News Agency, WAM, Omar Ahmed Mekki, Regional IHL Advisor at the ICRC, said, “The UAE’s adaptation of local laws in line with International Humanitarian Law, IHL, provisions will contribute strongly to the operationalisation and judicialisation of the Genera Conventions, which for a long time have been non-binding in the region.”

He said that Federal Decree-Law No. 12 of 2017 on International Crimes, issued by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, makes the UAE the first Arab country to adopt a comprehensive and complete legislation on war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of aggression among others associated with war and conflict. The Federal Decree-Law includes 46 articles.

Mekki went on to say that legislative adaptation between relevant international conventions and national laws, would help equip national federal courts with the necessary expertise and legislative knowledge to prosecute war crimes on a regional level.

Federal Decree-Law No. 12 of 2017 stipulates that the death penalty or life imprisonment will be imposed on any person(s) convicted of committing acts of genocide on national, ethnic, racial or religious group, causing massive corporal or mental harm to them, leaving them under harsh living conditions for the purpose of killing them completely or partially, imposing measures aimed to prevent reproduction among them or taking their children by force to another group.

The decree-law also deals with the punishments imposed on crimes against humanity, war crimes, attacks against civilians and civil and religious buildings, taking hostages, tortures and mobilising children under age, among others.

WAM/Nour Salman/MOHD AAMIR