11,574,700 people
Source: Tyranny Tracker
HRF classifies the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as ruled by a fully authoritarian regime.
The UAE is a federation of seven largely autonomous emirates each ruled by a hereditary royal family. The rulers of the seven emirates form the Federal Supreme Council (FSC), the executive body of the federal government that is led by the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has served as the country’s president since 2022, and the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who has served as the vice president and prime minister since 2006. The regime, widely condemned for its transnational human rights abuses such as its sponsorship of the RSF militias in Sudan, uses the wealth that it generates from the country’s vast fossil fuel resources to maintain strict domestic control and launder its international image while restricting all forms of political expression and systematically repressing dissent.
There is no democratic transition of power at any level of government in the UAE, rendering moot assessment of electoral competition. The regime does allow an electoral college of citizens handpicked by the rulers to run and vote in elections for 20 out of 40 seats of the Federal National Council (FNC), a consultative body with a limited mandate to discuss and approve legislation proposed by the appointed cabinet. However, the rulers ban political parties, marginalize the FNC’s role in governance, and target all forms of organized political opposition. Furthermore, the regime withholds all political rights from foreign residents, who make up close to 90% of the country’s population.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and the general public face overt and systematic retaliation if they openly criticize or challenge the regime. Vague terrorism, security, cybercrime, and press and publication laws enable regime-controlled institutions such as the State Security Apparatus (SSA) and National Media Council (NMC) to surveil and control the public sphere, retaliate against critics, and intimidate residents into self-censorship. Known dissidents, such as prisoners of conscience detained since the country’s largest mass trial in 2013, known as the UAE94, have faced arbitrary detention, torture, lifetime travel bans, and, as of November 2025, renewed trials and sentences on politically-motivated terrorism charges.
Institutions largely fail to serve as independent checks on the regime. As an absolute monarchy, the rulers of the emirates maintain executive and legislative authority, in addition to appointment powers for all levels of the judicial system. Courts routinely rubber-stamp politically-motivated charges brought against critics of the regime, most notably those brought by the SSA under vague counterterrorism and cybercrime laws. The judiciary fails to hold SSA and other regime officials accountable for human rights abuses such as arbitrary and secretive detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, allowing the regime to repress citizens and residents with impunity.
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