The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 29th Session of the Universal Periodic Review The United Arab Emirates Introduction 1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (the Institute) welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in relation to discrimination in nationality laws and deprivation of nationality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and related human rights and statelessness concerns. 2. The Institute1 is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Over the past two years, the Institute has made over 15 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under the 23rd to the 28th UPR Sessions.2 3. This submission addresses two main issues: discrimination against women in nationality legislation, and the discriminatory and arbitrary practices of Emirati authorities in the deprivation of nationality. Both practices either prolong or create statelessness, and also impact a range of other human rights, including access to socio-economic rights and the practice of civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, political participation, and freedom of assembly. The Universal Periodic Review of The UAE under the Second Cycle (2013). 4. In 2013, under the second UPR cycle, several recommendations were made to the UAE to address the issue of arbitrary deprivation of nationality. 3 Austria recommended that the UAE ‘Take steps to protect human rights defenders, journalists and religious minorities from discrimination, harassment or intimidation, including the arbitrary deprivation of nationality,’4 and Denmark was ‘concerned about alleged violations of freedoms of expression, assembly and association, including attempts to deprive political activists of their citizenship.’5 5. Unfortunately, there were no recommendations regarding gender discrimination in Emirati nationality law, or to remove its reservation to Article 9 of CEDAW. Notably, the UAE’s 2013 UPR report stated that 1 For more information see http://institutesi.org/ For more on the Institute’s UPR advocacy, see http://www.institutesi.org/ourwork/humanrights.php. 3 A/HRC/WG.6/15/L.11 4 Ibid. at 128.105. 5 Ibid. at 44 2