Jurist group violated Section 16 says UAE government decree

Human Rights Watch

"UAE authorities have staged a hostile takeover of one of the country's leading rights groups," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The government is reacting to domestic criticisms by banning websites, detaining peaceful activists, and intensifying its chokehold on civil society."

According to the decree, the Jurist Association violated section 16 of the UAE's 2008 Law on Associations, which prohibits nongovernmental organizations and its members from interfering "in politics or in matters that impair State security and its ruling regime." The associations law tightly controls

nongovernmental organizations permitted to operate in the UAE.

The Jurist Association, established in 1980 to promote the rule of law and raise professional standards in the legal profession, has faced mounting government restrictions in recent years. In 2010, the government prohibited association representatives from attending meetings abroad and cancelled symposiums in the UAE that it considered controversial. Members told Human Rights Watch that officials pressured them to quit the association.

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The father of the UAE, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died in 2004.