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Hundreds of people gathered for a rare outburst of freedom of expression in the politically repressive autocracy of the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, using the forum of the UN climate summit to highlight human rights abuses and the war in Gaza.
Despite tough UN restrictions on signage and language, rights groups expressed solidarity with prisoners of conscience in the UAE, such as Ahmed Mansoor, who was sentenced in 2017.
The demonstrations also mentioned Alaa Abd El-Fattah, an Egyptian activist who became the focal point of human rights protests at last year’s COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The protests took place after days of negotiations with the UN secretariat that controls events within the COP28 designated blue zone, where leaders and delegates formally confront. The so-called green zone where the wider public is allowed is controlled by the UAE hosts.
It was an unprecedented in-country acknowledgment of the UAE’s poor human rights record, where dozens were detained following calls for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy during the Arab Spring protests of 2011.
The UAE has long argued that its tight security maintains the country’s safe environment amid political tumult elsewhere in the Middle East.
Tough legislation since 2011 has criminalised criticism of the state. Rights groups were blocked from entering the country, but have been allowed to attend COP28, where officials have guaranteed freedom of assembly and expression.
“Over the last decade, this country has embarked on a sustained assault on basic rights and freedoms, including the unjust imprisonment of human rights defenders and political dissidents,” said Joey Shea, researcher on Saudi Arabia and the UAE for Human Rights Watch.
She highlighted the case of Ahmed Mansoor, imprisoned in isolation not far from the COP28 venue, where he has no access to reading materials or his glasses. “He was imprisoned for freely expressing his rights and documenting human rights violations in the country in which this COP was held,” she told the gathering.
The demonstration, originally planned for last week, has been repeatedly delayed by negotiations with the UN over the specific content.
At the last minute, activists were told to eradicate written references to detainee names. While T-shirts depicting Mansoor’s face were allowed, these had to be worn with another garment such as a cardigan or scarf.
The UN did not answer to a ask for comment about the conditions.
Hundreds of activists on Saturday marched behind a banner calling for “ceasefire now”, in an action clearly identified as pro-Palestinian. UN rules ban demonstrations at COP28 from naming individual states.
The demonstration, which ended outside the plenary hall where leaders address the summit, raised banners calling for the “right to return” and flags depicting watermelons, a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
It built on a rally at COP28 the previous weekend, when protesters read out the names of scores of children killed in Israel’s bombardment following Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
Organisers said the UN had demanded that they did not chant “from the river to the sea”, a controversial phrase criticised by Israelis as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, but which pro-Palestinians say refers to freedom for all in the Holy Land.
Asad Rehman, director of War on Want, said UN security staff had been confiscating Palestinian headdresses and badges calling for a ceasefire from some attendees.
“We have had to fight tooth and nail to be able to talk about Palestine here,” he said. “The UN is putting pressure on us because of pressure from powerful countries that do not want the issue raised here.”
The UN said there had been an average of 14 actions per day, similar to the average of last year’s COP. It said in “a small number of specific cases” it was working with protest organisers “to ensure that the code of conduct can be adhered to.”
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