Nationalities of the UAE Citizens… Between Stripping and Dropping!
By Muhammad Saleh Al Mansouri
Exceeding
the limits and definitions of shock, human rights arena in the UAE has
witnessed what’s far from being a setback, represented in the violation
of the basic rights of six UAE human rights, social, cultural, religious
and administrative activists by dropping their Emirati citizenship.
This
infringement on the right of these great men is unjustifiable and has
no explanation on the legal, constitutional and juristic levels; as well
as lacking support or satisfaction of any level in the national fabric
ranging from the senior leading elite to the UAE citizens and freemen
who expressed their intense anger and discontent.
This
poorly-discussed and irresponsible action requires a serious and
decisive attitude by all the citizens in the United Arab Emirates to put
an end once and forever for these serious forms of violation of the
basic rights of the citizen of the UAE, and put an ultimate end to the
previous setbacks in human rights which will only lead to an increase in
grievances and maximizing the number of the oppressed people.
Although
we extremely reject any form of attack on the rights of the citizen
UAE, dropping the nationalities as a punishment for the expression of
opinion is a is an unprecedented reaction in its severity and excess in
injustice that demonstrates the violation of the Constitution and the
law of citizenship by the party which held responsible for these most
powerful forms of social suffering and psychological damages.
The
Constitution and the law have not left the matter of citizenship to
whims or opinions. On the contrary, it ensured the mechanisms for
preservation of this right, and tightened the terms of withdrawing and
dropping nationalities. Meanwhile, the decrees on dropping the
citizenships of these men were empty from any reference to committing
any of those men any reason for withdrawing his nationality!
It’s
legally established that nationality is a fundamental right among the
citizens' rights guaranteed by the Constitution under Article VIII, and
is not susceptible to be withdrawn (for fully-fledged citizens) or
dropped (in case of naturalized citizens) unless in the exceptional
cases prescribed by law. Dropping or withdrawal of nationality is an
action that is very close to the life of the individual and may have
serious implications on his life; so that the Constitution and the law
enforced many restrictions and strictly controlled it in order to
preserve this fundamental right of human rights.
In
this case of dropping the nationalities of those citizens, the
Constitutional articles and the law of nationality have been grievously
infringed. Also, the way this decree issued contradicts the
specifications for issuing decrees specified in Article (114) of the
Constitution which make any decree unconstitutional unless approved by
the Council of Ministers and ratified by the President of the Federation
or the Supreme Council according to the way of competence, and then
being published after signed by the President of the Union in the
Official Gazette. So, What is the location of the decree on this
withdrawal of nationalities from this chain of legal procedures?!
The
law of nationality and passports (no. 17/1972), Article 15 identifies:
the nationality of the state should be dropped from fledged citizens in
two cases: to engage in military service of a foreign country without
the permission of the State and refused an order by the state to leave
this service, or if he worked for the benefit of an enemy state, or if
deliberately nationalized with a nationality of a foreign country. In
all cases at hand, no term or condition of those above-mentioned
applied. So, who then have interest in increasing the number of socially
and economically harmed from this unjust decree of stripping the
nationalities?
This
is also applied to the naturalized persons as well, whose nationality
shouldn’t be withrawn unless acting or engaged in a danger harming state
security and safety, or have been many times sentenced for shameful
crimes, or forging the data used in his citizenship papers, or stayed
outside the country without justification for more than four consecutive
years. Worth-mentioning, all cases harmed from withdrawal of their
nationality at hand did not apply to any of these terms and conditions
as well.
Based
on the absence of legal basis and causes, the party stands behind the
withdrawal and dropping of these nationalities has grossly violated the
Constitution and the law and openly infringed on the rights and values
of the UAE citizens. In this case, all legal actions to confront this
injustice would be fundamental; spanning from filing lawsuits before UAE
courts to sharing the complaint with the freemen worldwide and
universal human rights defenders, in addition to addressing the
humanitarian side of the leading elite in the state which is so ample
and wouldn’t be harmed by mischievous parties and persons.
It’s
more urgent today to call the leadership (the UAE President, Vice
President and the Supreme Council of the Federal Union) to lift the
injustice happened against these citizens, and keeping the mischievous
hands away from gambling with the fate and rights of the state and its
citizens; otherwise to issue a reasoned decree according to the
constitutional traditions by the Supreme Council deciding the withdrawal
of the citizenship of this group.
It
seems that it’s the Emiratis’ ill fate to witness successive waves of
diminution of their rights. Having the action of the five detainees and
its consequences ended up, a new more aggressive one acted on ground
(Stripping of the nationalities). We will not spare any effort to
legally abolish this decision and rendering the rights of citizenship to
their owners, in accordance with their constitutional, and legal rights
and in virtue of the rules of humanity and its consequent basic rights
and freedoms that can not be messed up by any party whatsoever.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق