The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) calls on the UAE authorities to immediately lift the travel ban against human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor. He is one of three nominees for the 2015 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders and has been invited to attend the award ceremony in Geneva on 6 October 2015.

Ahmed Mansoor is on the Advisory Board of the GCHR and is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.  He is a prominent human rights defender in the UAE and was one of the UAE5, imprisoned from April to November 2011 on charges of “publicly insulting” UAE’s rulers following a grossly unfair trial. He has worked tirelessly on human rights issues including arbitrary detention, torture and violations of fair trial procedures in the UAE.

Instead of being celebrated and honoured for peacefully and independently working for the promotion and protection of human rights, the authorities have targeted him. For many years, he has been subjected to repeated harassment, intimidation and death threats from the state security apparatus, as well as media smear campaigns. In 2011 his passport was confiscated and since then, despite being released and pardoned of the charges brought against, him the authorities have refused to lift the travel ban and to return his passport.

The jury of the Martin Ennals Award, comprised of ten human rights groups, released a statement on 15 September 2015, in which it said: “The UAE government must match its rhetoric on the international stage with meaningful actions at home, starting with immediately lifting the travel ban on Ahmed Mansoor, to returning and renewing his passport, and allowing him to travel to Geneva for the ceremony.”

The GCHR welcomes this statement and expresses concern at the on-going travel ban against Ahmed Mansoor which it believes is directly related to his peaceful and legitimate human rights work.

The GCHR urges the authorities in the UAE to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally lift the travel ban against Ahmed Mansoor and issue him with a new passport;
2. Immediately stop all forms of harassment, intimidation and attacks including the imposition of  travel bans against all human rights defenders;
3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in UAE are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

The GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to article 12 (1 and 2): “(1) Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. (2) The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”