UN Authority Figures

UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: United Arab Emirates

In 2011 Sheikh Issa, who is the half brother of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, was acquitted by a UAE court, despite being caught on videotape beating a man with a nailed plank, setting him on fire and running him over with a vehicle.
Source: VOA News

Mission of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) is the United Nations body of Member States responsible for setting out global strategy to prevent crime and promote stable criminal justice systems. The 40-member UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice formulates international policies and recommends activities in the field of crime control...The Commission offers nations a forum for exchanging expertise and information on matters of crime prevention and criminal justice and to determine strategies and priorities for combating crime at the global level....Priority areas mandated by the [Economic and Social] Council when it established the Commission in 1992 are: international action to combat national and transnational crime...and improving the efficiency and fairness of criminal justice administration systems." (Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice web-site)

Term of office: 2011-2014.

United Arab Emirates' Record on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice:
"Courts applying Sharia (Islamic law) had the option of imposing flogging as punishment for adultery, prostitution, consensual premarital sex, pregnancy outside marriage, defamation of character, and drug or alcohol abuse. Caning in past years resulted in substantial bruising, welts, and open wounds on those flogged...Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals faced severe mistreatment including physical abuse and rape in prisons...[T]he government held persons in official custody without charge or a preliminary judicial hearing...The law permits indefinite, routine, and incommunicado detention without appeal. Authorities determined whether detainees were permitted to contact attorneys, family members, or others after an indefinite or unspecified period...At the sole discretion of emirate-level prosecutors, foreign nationals had their passports taken during investigations...[C]ourt decisions remained subject to review by the political leadership and suffered from nepotism...There was no functional separation between the executive and judicial branches...The penal code allows men to use physical means, including violence, at their discretion against female and minor family members...In courts that applied Sharia, the extremely high burden of proof for a rape case contributed to a low conviction rate. In addition female victims of rape or sexual crimes faced the possibility of prosecution instead of assistance from government authorities..." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2012, United Arab Emirates)

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