Statement By Radha Stirling, founder of Detained in Dubai and Due Process International. Ms Stirling is a human rights advocate, expert witness and UAE country expert with 20 years’ experience. She has represented multiple clients before the United Nations, including Princess Latifa, secured UN findings on clients’ behalf and attended proceedings in Geneva to give evidence:
Stirling issued the following statement on the UAE nomination for UN office:
For the victims who have spent years seeking UN intervention against abuses in the Emirates, this nomination is an insult.
The UAE has nominated Lana Zaki Nusseibeh to become the next United Nations Secretary General. The sheer audacity is extraordinary.
A government that has disregarded UN human rights findings now wants its former ambassador entrusted with the institution’s highest office. Before asking the world to support its candidate, perhaps it could start by answering the people whose lives its authorities have destroyed.
The UAE treats UN scrutiny as an inconvenience and UN leadership as an opportunity. Its victims are entitled to be furious.
I am one of the people who has had to take those victims’ cases to the United Nations. I have worked with families desperate to rescue relatives from arbitrary detention, secure investigations into torture and obtain some semblance of accountability from the Emirates.
These families do not approach the UN for a diplomatic networking opportunity. They approach it because someone they love is imprisoned, injured, terrified or missing, and every other door has been slammed shut.
Over almost twenty years, we have helped almost thirty thousand victims of the UAE's draconian and chaotic system. The English Courts have refused to extradite to the Emirates based on the 'real risk of human rights abuses'. We’ve seen deaths in custody due to police brutality, rape victims jailed for “sex outside marriage”, domestic violence victims jailed for attempted suicide, frightened drone strike victims jailed for sending photos of their own apartment to loved ones. We’ve seen royals abducted and abused and we’ve represented Princess Latifa, a case that should make the diplomatic applause stop.
In March 2018, Latifa contacted me for help during the armed interception of the yacht on which she was attempting to escape Dubai. We took her case to the United Nations, and I attended in Geneva to present evidence. This was a princess seeking protection from her own family and the machinery of the state.
The allegations subsequently recorded by UN experts included abduction, beatings, forced sedation and detention without trial. Latifa also described torture following an earlier escape attempt. The UAE’s explanation that she was being cared for by her family was challenged by evidence of captivity and her own desperate accounts. In April 2021, UN experts publicly criticised the absence of concrete information following their requests.
Nusseibeh was the UAE’s ambassador to the United Nations when it called for Ryan Cornelius’s release in 2022. His case remains unresolved. Albert Douglas is still waiting for the compensation subsequently recommended by the UN. Her candidacy should be judged against that record of disregard for the institution she now wants to lead, rather than polished speeches about diplomacy.
I went to the United Nations seeking protection for a princess who described torture and captivity. Now the government responsible for answering those allegations wants its former UN ambassador to lead the organisation. Imagine how that looks to the women still begging to be heard.
Then there is British grandfather Albert Douglas.
We brought his case before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention after years of imprisonment and serious allegations of torture. The Working Group found his detention arbitrary and called for an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations. Its opinion records that the UAE did not respond to its April 2025 communication or even request an extension.
Albert eventually returned to Britain following sustained pressure. He has not been compensated.
Getting home does not restore the years taken from him. It does not repair the damage to his health, rebuild his livelihood or absolve those responsible. His return must never become an excuse to close the file.
Albert Douglas is still waiting for the compensation the UN said he should receive. The UAE is asking for the world’s most prestigious diplomatic office while leaving a British grandfather to carry the cost of its abuses. Pay him. Investigate what happened. Hold those responsible accountable.
In 2022, the Working Group found British businessman Ryan Cornelius’s detention arbitrary and called for his release and compensation. In July 2026, UN experts were still demanding his release, warning that his continued detention could become a death sentence. Years after the UN’s finding, the UAE has done nothing.
What exactly are victims supposed to conclude? That the UN can examine their evidence and uphold their complaints, but the government concerned can disregard the consequences and put forward a candidate to lead it?
That is contempt for the institution and an insult to everyone who relied upon it.
Nusseibeh says she would serve the office by “speaking frankly with every government and answering to none”. Fine. Start with the government that nominated you.
Call publicly for Albert’s compensation. Demand accountability over Latifa’s treatment. Insist on compliance with the UN’s findings on arbitrary detention. Demonstrate that independence while it costs something.
There is also the question of money and influence. In 2017, the UAE pledged €50 million through the INTERPOL Foundation to support INTERPOL projects. In 2021, Emirati official Ahmed Naser Al Raisi was elected INTERPOL president despite claims of torture against him by British citizens in detention. The UAE has repeatedly been accused of abusing INTERPOL to pursue people who should never have been on its wanted list yet somehow wound up holding the presidency.
Now the UAE is seeking the UN’s highest office while the organisation faces serious financial pressure. The UN has itself described an unprecedented liquidity crisis affecting peacekeeping. I have personally been asked whether I could assist with UN fundraising. I know how pressing the need for money has become. That makes transparency more urgent.
The UN’s funding crisis must not become a recruitment opportunity for governments seeking protection from scrutiny. A large contribution cannot purchase a clean human rights record. I am tired of watching victims being asked for endless evidence while powerful governments are offered endless opportunities to improve their image.
Before member states even entertain this nomination, they should demand that the UAE release Ryan Cornelius, compensate Albert Douglas and cooperate with UN investigations into torture and arbitrary detention. The UAE must act on the UN’s findings before expecting support for its candidate to lead the organisation.
The UAE cannot keep spitting on the UN’s human rights findings and expect the world to applaud its bid for the top job.
The United Nations should be somewhere victims can seek protection with confidence that their suffering matters. Elevating a senior representative of a government that disregards their cases risks telling them precisely the opposite.
Its victims should not have to watch the UAE be rewarded with greater influence while they are still waiting for justice.
