On March 16th, 2017, more than 38 civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike shortly before the night prayer at a mosque in al-Jinah area in Aleppo, Syria. While the airstrike was conducted to hit an Al-Qaeda meeting, the U.S. Central Command approved the strike without having a correct estimation of possible civilian casualties or accurate intelligence about the nature of the to-be-targeted building. Brigadier General Bontrager described the airstrike in a recent press briefing as “frustrating” and denied the Pentagon had any prior knowledge that the targeted building had a religious purpose.
Houthis responsible for arbitrary arrests, torture, murder
In its press release dated June 24, Mwatana Organization for Human Rights reported on gross violations of human rights committed by the Houthi movement--also known as Ansar Allah--in detention centers under their control. The report investigated approximately 30 cases of torture taking place in private detention centers and interrogation rooms where Houthis have reportedly adopted torture as a tool for interrogating detainees and denied access to medical care.
UAE implicated in crimes & sanctions violations in Yemen
The Just Security forum urges the United States to reconsider its support to the United Arab Emirates’ operations in Yemen due to concerns over apparent violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Rahma A. Hussein, a human rights lawyer and writer for Just Security, states in her recent report that the UAE’s actions in Yemen raise important legal and policy concerns. Another piece by Ryan Goodman and Alex Moorehead points that the UAE military and the UAE-backed forces have potentially violated international humanitarian law through enforced disappearances and the mistreatment of detainees.
April 11-16: WFP ramps up food aid to Yemen, Congress skeptical of supporting Saudi campaign
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
The UN said today that the risk of mass starvation is quickly growing in Yemen, as well as in South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria.
Norwegian Refugee Council’s press release today calls Yemen an “extreme situation for women,” emphasizing the importance of focusing on women’s issues and rights as women have been increasingly politically marginalized since the start of the war.
Human Rights in Yemen in 2016: “Impunity was persistent and pervasive”
The US Department of State recently released their 2016 Human Rights Country Report on the state of human rights in Yemen. According to the report, “impunity was persistent and pervasive” in Yemen, that contributed to gross human rights abuses by multiple actors throughout the year. The greatest human rights issues in Yemen were:
Amnesty International: Ongoing Violations of Children's Rights in Yemen
A new report by Amnesty International highlights the recruitment of child soldiers by Houthi forces in Yemen, and the violations of the rights of children by all parties to the conflict. The organization says that new evidence of recruiting tactics used by the Houthis has emerged, shedding light on how these young boys wind up on the front lines of Yemen’s war.
Mafraj Radio Episode 9: Yemen's humanitarian crisis, human rights issues, and al-Mahrah's experiment in democracy
On this episode we discuss Yemen's dire humanitarian crisis with UNOCHA's Trond Jensen. We also get a rundown of key human rights issues from Belkis Wille, Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch, and learn about an exciting experiment in local democracy taking place in al-Mahrah, Yemen's easternmost governorate.
UPDATE: The second segment of this episode, my interview with Belkis Wille of Human Rights Watch, includes a short discussion on the international community's repeated threats of sanctions against spoilers in Yemen. A few days after the episode aired, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution setting up a sanctions committee. Read about that here.
UNOCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) is responsible for coordinating international responses to humanitarian crises around the world. In Yemen, the office--headed by Trond Jensen--works to coordinate the efforts of more than 100 local and international NGOs to address Yemen's humanitarian crisis. Yemenis are suffering from food insecurity, lack of access to water, and severe poverty. In addition, several hundred thousand Yemenis have been displaced from their homes by conflict in the past decade. Our interview with Trond Jensen looks at the scope of the crisis, and challenges facing OCHA as it works to respond. You can find OCHA's website for Yemen here, with links to the recently-released Humanitarian Response Plan for 2014.
A few of the NGOs working in Yemen are listed below. While the international community will almost certainly fail to fully fund this year's Humanitarian Response Plan, you can do your part by donating to these organizations.
Human Rights Watch does an excellent job of tracking a number of important human rights issues in Yemen. Our interview with HRW researcher Belkis Wille covers President Hadi's failure to hold members of the former regime responsible for past abuses, the president's lack of control over the military, and the ongoing effort to raise the legal age for marriage and end child marriage in Yemen. You can also find Belkis Wille on Twitter. You can find all of HRW's reports on Yemen here.
Dr. Elisabeth Kendall is a senior research fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford. She spoke to us about her work on a groundbreaking public opinion survey recently undertaken in Yemen's easternmost governorate, al-Mahrah, and about the subsequent establishment of a new majlis, or representative council. This experiment in grass-roots democracy is particularly remarkable for the fact that al-Mahrah is extremely remote and sparsely populated. In 2011 the estimated population of the entire governorate was only 108,000. The new Mahri Majlis has a website, which is updated in Arabic and English, where you can find the Majlis code of conduct, and more information about how the council was formed.