23. Emirati women lack the right to confer nationality on a noncitizen spouse, a right that is reserved for Emirati men. Issue II – Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality 24. Concerns regarding arbitrary deprivation of nationality emerge both from UAE law and practice. 28 Though UAE’s Constitution in Article 8 prohibits arbitrary withdrawal of nationality, save for exceptional circumstances defined by law, the Nationality Law creates a broad list of circumstances that may be considered “exceptional.”29 25. All Emirati citizens will lose their citizenship if they: 1. 2. 3. “[engage] in military service for a foreign State without a permission from the State, and … [have] been ordered to leave said service but [have] refused to do so. … acted for the benefit of a hostile nation. … willingly become a naturalised national of a foreign state.”30 26. A finding that a citizen has committed any of the above acts must be made through a Federal Decree, which cannot be contested.31 27. Dissidents’ calls for representative democracy and a Parliament with legislative powers have been deemed to amount to plots to overthrow the regime and resulted in the stripping of nationality from many such opponents. The practice of citizenship revocation started with the famous trial of the accused in the “UAE 94” case, a trial which UN Special Rapporteurs and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined was unfair and arbitrary due to lack of due process.32 Seven of those on trial, all political opponents of the government, were stripped of their nationality. Since then, at least 60 people have been arbitrarily stripped of their nationality.33 While the state claims that these measures are to combat terrorism, it is evident that the deprivation of nationality is politically motivated. The UAE has yet to demonstrate that its practice of arbitrary deprivation of nationality is not incompatible with its own constitution as well as its international obligations. In addition to being arbitrary, this practice is also indiscriminate, with some reports of entire families having had their nationality stripped off them, in retaliation to the political views of the husband/father. For example, Mr. Obaid Ali Al Kaabia, was arrested and forcibly disappeared by the State Security Apparatus in 2014. When he was released his citizenship was arbitrarily revoked, along with that his wife and children, on grounds of them being a ‘threat to national security’.34 Others stripped of nationality include: Sheikh Mohammed Abdul-Razzaq Siddiq, Dr. 28 Human Rights Watch, “UAE’s Double-Standard on Citizenship Rights: Government Should Reverse Discriminatory Citizenship Law, (February 5 2021), available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/05/uaes-double-standard-citizenship-rights. 29 Article 8 United Arab Emirates: Constitution, (2 December 1971), available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48eca8132.html. 30 Federal Law No. (17) of 1972, Concerning Nationality and Passports with its amendments, Federal Decree-Law No. (16) Of 2017 concerning the amendment of some provisions of Federal Law No. (17) of 1972 regarding Nationality and Passports, Art. 15. Rephrased for concordance. 31 Ibid. Art. 20 (1). 32 The Guardian, “The UAEs bizarre political trail of 94 activists”, (6 March 2013), available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/06/uae-trial-94-activists. 33 The International Campaign for Freedom in the United Arab Emirates (ICFUAE), “Revocation of nationalities in the United Arab Emirates’, (25 January 2017), available at: https://www.icfuae.org.uk/research-and-publications/revocation-nationalitiesunited-arab-emirates. 34 Ibid. 6