Saturday, September 19, 2015

United Arab Emirates - Ahmed Mansoor, Human Rights Defender and Blogger, Banned from Travel - URGENT ACTION

Amnesty International
     The UAE authorities have prevented prominent human rights defender and blogger Ahmed Mansoor from going to an award ceremony, by arbitrarily imposing a travel ban. He is a finalist for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, and has been invited to attend the award ceremony in the Swiss city of Geneva on 6 October.
     The UAE authorities have refused to return his passport, which they confiscated when he was arbitrarily arrested in 2011, so he will be prevented from attending the award ceremony in Geneva. They have given him contradictory reasons for failing to return it. Both the travel ban and the confiscation of his passport violate Ahmed Mansoor’s right under international human rights law to freedom of movement, as these measures were taken to punish him for his peaceful human rights activism. He is one of the few people in the UAE speaking out about human rights violations in the country. 
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