Many groups criticized UAE’s State Security Apparatus(SSA)’s on its 50th anniversary. Different groups urging Emirati authorities to prevent SSA from committing serious human rights violations in the country. The organizations that opposed SSA include MENA Rights Group, the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center, and Human Rights Watch.
The establishment of the State Security Apparatus (SSA) was done on 10 June 1974. It is the UAE’s highest authority for state security. It has been a key player in suppressing peaceful dissent within the country, notably starting with a mass arrests campaign in 2013 against Emirati civil society members.
SSA agents arrested, tortured and detained that year. This action was done by hundred lawyers, judges, students, and other intellectuals who had signed a petition calling for democratic reforms. This situation led to the UAE94 trial. So, 94 individuals were unfairly tried on terrorism charges. This large figure marks the largest mass trial in the history of the globe. The result of this trial sentenced 69 defendants to prison.
Since that time State Security Apparatus continuously committed serious crimes. It severely violated human rights such as kidnapping people, torturing them and also kept them in a cage without any logic. Then SSA officials took away the human rights defender, Ahmad Mansoor in 2017. No one was able to trace him because agents kept his location secret for more than a year. After some time it was revealed that the State Security Apparatus. Here SSA agents tortured and treated him badly.
The SSA (State Security Apparatus) in the UAE is operated secretly under the direct control of the UAE President. Special law is designed that controls it. Also it is important to know that the public is not familiar with the law. According to a leaked document from the Emirates Detainee Advocacy Center the law that controls it was changed in 2003. This change makes the SSA more powerful and permits it to do anything secretly. They do things without any oversight from institutions, courts, or financial control.
For example SSA has authorities to collect data about any political activity and watch social changes. The President of the SSA can keep suspects in jail for up to three months and make decisions that all security groups have to follow. The SSA can also create security offices in any federal government office, embassy, or consulate in other countries.
The State Security Agency(SSA) of the UAE has now power to control the public freedoms. UAE Counterterrorism Law proves beneficial for this agency. They can investigate crimes they classify as terrorism and security offenses under the 2014 UAE Counterterrorism Law. This law is controversial because it equates public dissent with terrorism. Also this law doesn’t follow the international rules. Many UN members criticized the law by saying that it violates the international human rights standards.
They argue that such broad definitions and crackdowns on civic space restrict people’s rights to express their opinions and protest peacefully, which are fundamental rights protected by international law.
As the State Security Apparatus (SSA) celebrates 50 years, there is a growing crackdown on civil society in the UAE. Many organizations strongly condemn the SSA’s severe human rights violations and its harsh suppression of public protests by falsely accusing people of ‘terrorism’. We call on UAE authorities to align the SSA’s laws and actions with global human rights norms, punish those responsible for abuses, and compensate the victims.