UAE State Security Agency: Extensive History of Human Rights Violations

The UAE State Security Agency establishes a reality of systematic oppression, silencing voices and suppressing any dissent against government policies, in the absence of justice and respect for basic rights, compounded by weak judicial oversight, according to a leading human rights organization.
The Emirates Advocacy Center for Detained Persons reported that the UAE State Security Agency, founded on June 10, 1974, as the highest authority in charge of security matters in the country, has since evolved into a primary instrument of repression against human rights defenders and civil society.
The center clarified that this included the widespread campaign of arrests in 2013, which targeted more than 100 individuals, including lawyers, judges, students, and intellectuals who signed a petition calling for democratic reforms.
According to the center, the Emirati authorities prosecuted 94 of these individuals in a collective trial deemed unjust, where they faced terrorism charges, later referred to as the ‘UAE 94’ detainees. Sentences were handed down to 69 of them, ranging from 7 to 15 years in prison, along with a travel ban upon completion of their sentences.
Since then, the State Security Agency has persisted in committing severe violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture. A notable case is that of human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, who was arrested in 2017 and subjected to enforced disappearance for over a year, representing a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights.
Human Rights Watch reports that the State Security Agency functions without any legal or institutional oversight, operating under an undisclosed law that provides it with unrestricted powers, including the surveillance of political and social activities.
The law additionally grants the head of the agency the power to detain individuals for up to three months without any judicial oversight, and authorizes the agency to address terrorism-related matters based on vague and broadly defined terms in the 2014 Anti-Terrorism Law, which has faced extensive human rights criticism.
For many years since its establishment, the ‘State Security’ agency, much like other security forces, represented stability in the UAE, and its relationship with the state and citizens was indistinguishable from that of any other security agency in the country.
Yet, 2003 represented a significant turning point in the operations and goals of this agency, with the replacement of the 1974 law by a new one—Federal Decree No. 2 of 2003, as stated by the Emirates Advocacy Center for Detained Persons.
The center stated that this decree greatly changed the functioning of the State Security Agency, modifying its structure and broadening its powers, turning it from a body focused on protecting state security into an authority above the law, primarily aimed at monitoring, suppressing Emiratis, and intervening in the minutiae of their lives.
The law included controversial provisions that breach the UAE Constitution, permitting the State Security Agency to monitor all Emiratis and intervene in all government institutions. This highlights the drastic shift in the agency’s function from safeguarding citizens to repressing them and exerting control over their daily lives.
The level of intervention by the UAE State Security Agency in citizens’ lives has escalated to the point that human rights organizations and media reports have drawn comparisons to the oppressive security forces of the 1920s.