The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates led in practice by Abu Dhabi, the largest by area and richest in natural resources. Limited elections are held for a federal advisory body, but political parties are banned, and all executive, legislative, and judicial authority ultimately rests with the seven hereditary rulers. The civil liberties of both citizens and noncitizens, who make up an overwhelming majority of the population, are subject to significant restrictions.

• In July, after a mass trial of 84 defendants that had begun in December 2023, a total of 43 people were sentenced to life in prison, and 10 others received sentences of 10 or 15 years, on charges that they had formed and supported a terrorist organization. Human rights groups identified grave violations of due process and defendants’ rights in the highly opaque trial, as well as abusive conditions of detention. Most of the accused had already served lengthy prison sentences on virtually identical charges after a 2012–13 mass trial, and the group included a number of prominent human rights defenders and dissidents. For example, leading human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor and economist Nasser bin Ghaith, both of whom were serving earlier prison terms for their advocacy, were reportedly sentenced to 15 years in the new case.
• Also in July, 57 Bangladeshi citizens were swiftly sentenced to lengthy prison terms—ranging from 10 years to life—for taking part just days earlier in an unauthorized protest in Abu Dhabi against their home country’s government. They were then pardoned and deported in September.
• Authorities continued to restrict public expression on topics including the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In May, a foreign student who shouted a pro-Palestinian slogan during a graduation ceremony at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus was arrested and deported.
• The international Financial Action Task Force announced in February that it had removed the UAE from its “grey list” after the country made improvements to its legal and regulatory safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.