ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the legal system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is influenced by a specific kind of rule of law, a notion of justice influenced by Islam as a main source of law. It examines how or the extent to which the authorities have implemented their negotiated obligations under international human rights law domestically. Like the UAE authorities’ negotiations of international obligations through reservations to treaties and the lack of response to requests for invitations to monitor universal rights in the jurisdiction, the authorities practise local interpretations of universal rights. Through the human rights treaties, the UAE government recognises international human rights law. These treaties have monitoring committees to keep track of the enforcement of treaty obligations. UAE acceptance of these human rights treaties is in line with the treaty acceptance of its Arab Gulf neighbour states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia), but the treaty on torture divided the Gulf States until recently.
