The UAE does not have democratically elected institutions and citizens do not have the right to change their government or form political parties. Activists and academics who criticize the government are detained and imprisoned, and their families are often harassed by the state security apparatus. The government restricts freedom of speech and freedom of the press , and the local media are censored to prevent criticism of the government, government officials or royal families.
As a result, the UAE routinely ranks near the bottom of many international measures for human rights and press freedom. In November , the UAE overhauled its legal system and enacted a number of reforms, including lowering restrictions on alcohol consumption, permitting cohabitation , imposing harsher sentences for honor killings , and removing corporal punishment as a legal form of punishment in its penal code.
Although authorised, the death penalty is rarely applied in the UAE as the law requires that a panel of three judges agree on the decision of a sentence to death, which can be commuted if the family of the victim forgives the convicted or accept a financial compensation for the crime. When a family accepts financial compensation, the court can jail a convict to a minimum of three years and a maximum of seven years.
Execution in the UAE is applied through a firing squad. Sharia is the principal source of law for Muslim family law. Sharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction to hear family disputes, including matters involving divorce , inheritances , child custody , child abuse and guardianship for Muslims in the UAE.
The UAE penal code was updated in to remove all legal forms of punishment prescribed in Sharia law, except for blood money payments; these punishments included flogging and stoning.
