United Arab Emirates

Sarah Nilsson, PhD, JD

173 United Arab Emirates

Three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and black with a wider vertical red band on the hoist side. The flag incorporates all four Pan-Arab colors, which in this case represent fertility (green), neutrality (white), petroleum resources (black), and unity (red). Red was the traditional color incorporated into all flags of the emirates before their unification.

Flag courtesy of the CIA World Factbook

Map courtesy of the CIA World Factbook

Google Earth

Abu Dhabi camel.

Photo courtesy of the CIA World Factbook

UAE is a member of ICAO and JARUS.

Last updated on March 28, 2025

Government

According to Britannica, the highest governmental authority is the Federal Supreme Council, which is composed of the quasi-hereditary rulers of the seven emirates. The president and vice president of the federation are elected for five-year terms by the Supreme Council from among its members. The president appoints a prime minister and a cabinet. The unicameral legislature, the Federal National Council, is an advisory body made up of 40 members appointed by the individual emirates for two-year terms. A provisional constitution was ratified in 1971 and was made permanent in 1996 by the Supreme Council.

The United Arab Emirates has a federal system of government, and any powers not assigned to the federal government by the constitution devolve to the constituent emirates. Generally, the distribution of power within the federal system is similar to those in other such systems—for example, the federation government administers foreign policy, determines broad economic policy, and runs the social welfare system—and a significant amount of power is exercised at the individual emirate level, notably in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The constitution calls for a legal code based on Sharīʿah (Islamic law). In practice, the judiciary blends Western and Islamic legal principles. At the federal level the judicial branch consists of the Union Supreme Court and several courts of first instance: the former deals with emirate-federal or inter-emirate disputes and crimes against the state, and the latter cover administrative, commercial, and civil disputes between individuals and the federal government. Other legal matters are left to local judicial bodies.

General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA)

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) was created in 1996 by Federal Cabinet Decree (Law 4) to regulate Civil Aviation and provide designated services with observance to aviation safety and security to strengthen the aviation industry within the UAE and its upper space. Since 1996 the Authority has made considerable progress and embarked on bold new initiatives to provide a better service to its civil aviation clients and stakeholders. Since 1996 many new projects and innovations have been initiated with generally excellent result, such as modernization of the air traffic control center program, Radar equipments and establishing of new facilities to serve the growth of the civil aviation within the UAE.

Airspace

SkyVector – Google Maps – ADS-B Exchange

ICAO countries publish an Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP). This document is divided into three parts: General (GEN), En Route (ENR) and Aerodromes (AD). ENR 1.4 details the types of airspace classes they chose to adopt from classes A through G.

UAE AIP – requires login