Press Release: Human Rights Groups Urge NBA to End Future Emirates NBA Cup Sponsorship Over UAE’s Role in Sudan Atrocities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 11, 2025

MEDIA CONTACT: Prapti Ajmera, West End Strategy Team

pajmera@westendstrategy.com | 202-867-5231

Human Rights Groups Urge NBA to End Future Emirates NBA Cup Sponsorship Over UAE’s Role in Sudan Atrocities

LAS VEGAS – As the Emirates NBA Cup mid-season tournament enters its final rounds in Las Vegas this week ahead of December 16th’s championship game, a coalition of humanitarian and human rights organizations is calling on the National Basketball Association to end future partnership with Emirates, the flagship airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), unless the UAE ends its documented role in fueling atrocities in Sudan.

The groups warn that the “Emirates NBA Cup” lends legitimacy and prestige to the UAE, a government accused of providing a massive flow of weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group responsible for mass killings, sexual violence, and genocide in Sudan. More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, and hundreds of thousands have died,  the vast majority of them civilians, since the conflict escalated. In recent weeks, RSF forces seized the city of El Fasher and launched a new massacre of civilians there. The RSF has continued atrocities in the Kordofan region, including drone strikes this week on a kindergarten and a nearby hospital.

The SpeakOutonSudan campaign is asking fans to sign a petition calling on the NBA to end its sponsorship agreement with Emirates as long as the UAE continues to support the genocide in Sudan. “This partnership is not innocent—it is sportswashing, and it hides the suffering of Sudanese people behind a trophy,” the petition states. 

At 3 pm PST on Tuesday, December 16th, activists will hold a demonstration in Toshiba Plaza opposite T-Mobile Arena, ahead of the Emirates NBA Cup Final. Campaign leaders are available for remote and in-person interviews – please contact Prapti Ajmera, pajmera@westendstrategy.com.

“Millions of Sudanese civilians have been displaced, attacked, and killed with weapons supplied by the UAE, yet the NBA continues to give that same government a global platform of celebration and prestige,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International. “The NBA has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to stand on the right side of history by ending this sponsorship. Sports should stand for integrity and human dignity—not help cover up the suffering of millions.”

“The NBA’s credibility as a league that stands for justice and fairness is at risk,” said John Prendergast, co-founder of The Sentry. “Will the league take action to break off their connection to a government that is funding and arming genocide in Sudan? Or is “shut up and dribble” going to be the way forward for the NBA on this issue?”  

“The reality is that even as the Emirates NBA Cup plays out, tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians have been killed by a group directly armed by the United Arab Emirates,” said Fareed Zein, Board Chairman of the Sudanese American Public Affairs Association. The NBA should partner with the Sudanese people, not those enabling genocide.”

The SpeakOutOnSudan campaign is led by a coalition of groups including Refugees International; The Sentry; No Business With Genocide; The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; Sudan Unlimited; Advocacy Network for Africa (AdNA); American Friends Service Committee; The Human Security Project; Stop Genocide Now; Darfur Women Action Group; SIHA Network; Confluence Advisory; Decolonize Sudan; Pax Christi New York State; Operation Broken Silence; iACT; the Sudanese American Public Affairs Association; and Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC). 

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