Uae

The legislative branch consists of a parliamentary body, the Federal National Council. A constitutionally independent judiciary includes the Federal Supreme Court.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the union's president from the nation's founding until his death on November 2, 2004.

The Federal Supreme Council elected his son, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president the next day. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the heir apparent.
The Supreme Council elects the Council of Ministers, while an appointed/elected forty-member Federal National Council, drawn from all the emirates, reviews proposed laws.

The council carries out the country’s main consultative duties and has both a legislative and supervisory role provided by the Constitution.
There is a federal court system; all emirates except Ras al-Khaimah have joined the federal system; all emirates have both secular and Islamic law for civil, criminal, and high courts.
The UAE took its first steps towards indirect elections for the country’s parliament on National Day, December 2, 2005 upon the official announcement by HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan which followed the formation of an Electoral College. The election and appointment of nine women (comprising 22.5 per cent of the Council) strongly signified advancement and political participation of women in the United Arab Emirates.

It plays a significant role in OPEC, the UN and is one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Regionally, the Emirates have long maintained close relations with Egypt and remain the highest investors in the country from among the rest of the Arab world. Most recently, these relations culminated in a joint nuclear deal for the US to supply the UAE with nuclear technology, expertise and fuel.

The 15-65 age group has a male(s)/female sex ratio of 2.743. In 2007, there were approximately 1.4 million Indian nationals, half of whom came from Kerala, making them the single largest expatriate community in the oil-rich nation. Persons from over twenty Arab nationalities, including thousands of Palestinians who came as either political refugees or migrant workers, also live in the United Arab Emirates.

There is also a sizable number of Emiratis from other Arab League nations who have come before the formation of the Emirates such as Egyptians, Somalis, Sudanese and other Persian Gulf Arab states, who have adopted the native culture and customs. Further, Somali immigration also continued in the 1990s as a result of the Somali civil war.
There are also residents from other parts of the Middle East, Baluchistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, Africa, Europe, Post-Soviet states, and North America.

The UAE has attracted a small number of very affluent expatriates (Americans, British, Canadians, Japanese and Australians) from developed countries. They are attracted to a very warm climate, scenic views (beaches, golf courses, man-made islands and lucrative housing tracts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai), the nation's comparably low cost of living (but in 2006, thousands of real estate properties are valued over millions of dollars) and tax-free incentives for their business or residency in the UAE.

Expatriates abide by the law and are required to respect the customs of the UAE.
The most populated city is Dubai, with approximately 1.6 million people. There is a Hindu temple.
Although it is legal to follow these faiths, it is illegal in the UAE to spread the ideas of these religions through any form of media as it is a form of proselytizing.According to a recent report by the Ministry of Finance and Industry, real GDP rose by 35% in 2006 to $175 billion, compared with $130 billion in 2005. These figures would suggest that the UAE had the fastest growing real GDP in the world, between 2005 and 2006.
Although the United Arab Emirates is becoming less dependent on natural resources as a source of revenue, petroleum and natural gas exports still play an important role in the economy, especially in Abu Dhabi.

A massive construction boom, an expanding manufacturing base, and a thriving services sector are helping the UAE diversify its economy. Nationwide, there is currently $350 billion worth of active construction projects. Such projects include the Burj Dubai, which is slated to become the world's tallest building, Dubai World Central International Airport which, when completed, will be the most expensive airport ever built, and the three Palm Islands, the largest artificial islands in the world.

The public schools are government-funded and the curriculum is created to match the United Arab Emirates development's goals and values. The Ministry also is responsible for admitting students to its undergraduate institutions, including the five largest centers of higher education: United Arab Emirates University, Zayed University, Gulf Medical College and Higher Colleges of Technology.

Workers typically arrive in debt to recruitment agents from home countries and upon arrival are often made to sign a new contract in English or Arabic which pays them less than had originally been agreed. Visa and travel costs are typically added on to the original debt, and thus within hours of their arrival, workers often find that their debt-repayment time has increased significantly, possibly by years.
Confiscation of passports is officially illegal, but in reality employers have been known to retain the passports of their semi or unskilled employees. All of the workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in a 2006 report had had their passports confiscated. The kafala system of employment, which ties an employee to one employer and prevents him or her from seeking alternative employment without the expressed approval of the original employer operates in the UAE.

Workers are therefore dependent on their employer for housing, wages and healthcare. The lack of proper enforcement mechanisms of the country’s labour laws means that in practice employers may break laws with little fear of prosecution.

Accordingly, non-payment of wages, cramped and unsanitary living conditions, poor safety practices, physical and mental abuse are widespread.
The issue of sexual abuse among female domestic servants is an area of concern, particularly given that domestic servants are not covered by the UAE Labour Law of 1980 or the Draft Labour Law of 2007, which was heavily criticised by Human Rights Watch. In 2007 the falling dollar meant workers were unable to service debts and the incidence of suicides among Indian workers had reportedly been on the increase. Worker protests have been heavily cracked down on with reports of collective expulsion and imprisonment. The government has ignored international pressure to introduce trade unions despite repeated promises to do so going back to 2004.
From the perspective of international human rights law, the UAE is in violation of its obligations under the terms of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in particular where its treatment of non-citizens is concerned. Recent initiatives to stamp out the practice of child labor have headed off criticism that it violates its obligations under the terms of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

People with TB, Hepatitis C and AIDS are also at a disadvantage as any non-citizen found with these illnesses may be deported.
Discrimination in the workplace has also been reported; prospective employers will specify religion, nationality (and even regional origin in some cases) and also specify the sex of required candidates within job advertisements. However, this is often a necessity due to modesty considerations in traditional societies as well as language requirements in a country where much of the population does not speak the national language.

The first line (Red Line) is expected to be completed by September 2009. The yellow lines, currently in development, will go through the man-made Palm Islands.
Lately, the Emirate of Dubai created a new electronic toll collection system in July 2007, which emphasizes the system’s congestion management objectives as well as the choice of technology for the toll system.