Human Rights Watch .. Yemen: No Justice for Past Abuses

Human Rights Watch .. Yemen: No Justice for Past Abuses
Reforms Needed on Child Marriage, Women’s Rights

Houthis ride on a truck past the state television compound in Sanaa,  on September 21, 2014 Reuters

(Sanaa, January 29, 2015) – Yemen’s government has not followed up on promises to take decisive measures to ensure justice for past human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2015. The government should also pass legislation to end child marriage and female genital mutilation, and reform laws that discriminate against women.
President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and his cabinet resigned on January 22, 2015, after Houthi insurgents took over de facto control of the capital, Sanaa, but parliament has not yet accepted their resignation. 

Hadi has not acted to hold former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 33 years, and his aides, accountable for their crimes. They were granted immunity from prosecution by Yemen’s parliament in 2012. Hadi had promised to pass a transitional justice law, appoint a commission of inquiry into government abuses during the 2011 uprising, and create other mechanisms to provide accountability for past violations or prevent future ones.

“The Yemeni government has ignored people’s calls for justice for the widespread and serious rights violations under Saleh’s rule,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should heed those calls, break from the long practice of indifference to abuse, and ensure accountability.”

In the 656-page world report, its 25th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth urges governments to recognize that human rights offer an effective moral guide in turbulent times, and that violating rights can spark or aggravate serious security challenges. The short-term gains of undermining core values of freedom and non-discrimination are rarely worth the long-term price. 

A 10-month process of national dialogue that ended in January 2014 produced hundreds of recommendations for legal and other reforms, including calls for the creation of a national human rights institution and the adoption of a transitional justice law to address accountability for past human rights abuses. Yet, by the end of the year the government had taken no significant steps to promote accountability, or other national dialogue recommendations on women’s equality, non-discrimination, and violence against women. A committee appointed to draft a new constitution began working in April but had yet to publish a draft by year’s end. A draft children rights law submitted to the cabinet in April – which would ban child marriage and female genital mutilation – had not been approved.

There was considerable fighting across Yemen in 2014. In May in the south, government forces opened a military offensive against the Islamist armed group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In the north, the military clashed with fighters belonging to Ansar Allah, the northern-based Shia Houthi movement, which seized control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September. The US continued its drone campaign against alleged AQAP members and remained unwilling to publish basic information on the attacks.

The fighting across the country resulted in attacks on civilians and schools and hospitals in violation of international law. State forces and rebel groups damaged or destroyed at least 41 schools and occupied at least six others. More than 30 other schools were closed because they were being used to shelter families who had fled fighting near their homes.

To read Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2015 chapter on Yemen, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/yemen

Yemen

The fragile transition government that succeeded President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012 following mass protests failed to address multiple human rights challenges in 2014. Violations in the context of several different armed conflicts, legally sanctioned discrimination against women, child offenders facing the death penalty, child marriage, child soldiers, attacks against journalists, unlawful detention, human trafficking of migrants, and lack of accountability for the previous government’s human rights violations all persisted.

All sides committed laws of war violations in fighting that broke out repeatedly in different parts of the country in 2014, involving multiple actors including the Yemeni armed forces, Houthi rebels, Islamist fighters, and the Islamist armed group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

In September, following instances of security forces using excessive force against Houthi protesters, a four-day armed conflict rocked Sanaa as Houthi armed forces took the capital. The fighting in Sanaa ended on September 21 with the signing of a peace agreement, the resignation of the prime minister, and the formation of a new government in November.

By September 2014, 334,512 people across Yemen were officially registered as internally displaced due to fighting.

Accountability

Yemen’s parliament voted in January 2012 to give former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his aides immunity from prosecution. In September 2012, however, Saleh’s successor, President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, decreed the creation of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate alleged rights abuses committed during the 2011 uprising, and recommend measures to hold perpetrators accountable and afford redress to victims. By November 2014, Hadi had still to nominate the inquiry’s commissioners and no progress had been achieved.

The government failed to implement human rights reforms recommended at the 10-month-long national dialogue conference (NDC) that concluded in January 2014. The NDC made hundreds of human rights and other recommendations for legal reforms and relating to the drafting of a new constitution. However, the government took no significant steps to address the issue of accountability for past human rights crimes by establishing a national human rights institution or passing a transitional justice law, as the NDC had recommended.

In response to NDC recommendations, in June the minister of social affairs and labor and the minister of legal affairs jointly submitted a draft transitional justice law for cabinet review. In November, both it and another bill on looted funds had yet to be transmitted to parliament by the cabinet.

Attacks on Health Workers

According to media reports, AQAP militants seized a hospital and two medical centers in Shabwa governorate in southern Yemen on April 20, following a series of government airstrikes that targeted AQAP training camps in the region. After forcibly evacuating the hospital’s medical staff, AQAP militants reportedly brought in a number of their own doctors to treat their wounded. In addition, according to Yemeni media, suspected AQAP militants opened fire on a minibus carrying staff members from a military hospital in Aden, southern Yemen, on June 15, killing at least six people and wounding at least nine others. Human Rights Watch was not able to independently verify these reports.

Women’s and Girls’ Rights

Women in Yemen face severe discrimination in law and in practice. Women cannot marry without the permission of their male guardian; they do not have equal rights to divorce, inheritance, or child custody; and a lack of legal protection leaves them exposed to domestic and sexual violence. The NDC produced many recommendations to bolster women’s and girls’ rights.

In response, in April, the minister of social affairs and labor, and the minister of legal affairs, submitted a draft Child Rights Law to the cabinet. The draft law sets the minimum age for marriage at 18, and provides criminal penalties of between two months and one year in prison and a fine of up to 400,000 Yemeni Riyal (US$1,860) for any authorized person who draws up a marriage contract knowing that at least one party is under 18. Any witnesses or signatories to the marriage contract, including the parents or other guardians, who know that at least one party is under 18 face a prison sentence of between one and three months and a fine of between 100,000 YER ($460) and 250,000 YER ($1,160).

The draft law also addresses other important rights for girls and women, including criminalizing the practice of female genital mutilation, with penalties of between one and three years in prison and a fine of up to 1,000,000 YER ($4,644) for those who carry out the cutting. The law remained pending in the cabinet at time of writing.

Children and Armed Conflict

The Child Rights Bill also addresses the recruitment of child soldiers and child labor. Articles 162 and 250(b) prohibit the use or recruitment of child soldiers, imposing a fine of up to 300,000 YER ($1,393).

In May, Yemen signed an action plan with the United Nations to end and prevent the recruitment of children by the armed forces. The plan includes reforming national laws, issuing military orders prohibiting the recruitment and use of children, investigating allegations of recruitment, and providing for the reintegration of child soldiers into their communities. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, the government has already taken concrete steps to implement the plan.

According to the Ministry of Education and Teaching, armed conflicts in Amran, Sanaa, and Shabwa led to the damage or destruction of at least 41 schools and the occupation by armed forces of at least 6 schools in 2014. In addition, 31 schools were being used to house internally displaced persons. In November alone, fighting in Ibb pushed authorities to temporarily close 169 schools serving 92,000 students, reopening them a week later. In Al Bayda, 11 schools in Rada' remained closed as of October 31, leaving 6,000 students without classes to attend.

US Drone Strikes

The United States continued its drone campaign against alleged AQAP members. Independent research groups reported 23 US drone strikes in Yemen from January through November. The US remained unwilling to publish basic information on the attacks, including how many people the strikes killed or wounded, how many of those were civilians, and which, if any, strikes it found to be unlawful.

Previously, a US drone strike in December 2013 struck a wedding procession, killing 12 people and wounding at least 15 others. A Human Rights Watch investigation concluded that some, if not all, of the dead were civilians. In August 2014, evidence surfaced that the families of those killed in the wedding strike altogether received more than $1 million in compensation from the Yemeni government. Previously, compensation has only been provided by the Yemeni government when those killed were civilians.

Unlawful Use of Landmines

In November 2013, the government admitted, in response to reports by Human Rights Watch and others, that a “violation” of the Mine Ban Treaty had occurred in 2011 during the uprising that eventually ousted the Saleh government. Republican Guard forces loyal to the Saleh government laid thousands of antipersonnel mines in 2011 at Bani Jarmooz, northeast of Sanaa, causing numerous civilian casualties.

As a party to the Mine Ban Treaty, Yemen has committed to never use antipersonnel mines under any circumstances, and to prevent and suppress any prohibited activities. At least 15 governments expressed concern at the use of landmines in Yemen. In June at the Treaty’s Third Review Conference, Yemen stated that the Military Prosecutor’s Office had begun an investigation to identify those responsible.

In March 2014, Yemen provided the Mine Ban Treaty‘s president with an interim report that outlined plans for clearance, marking, risk education, and victim assistance in relation to the Bani Jarmooz mines. In October, Human Rights Watch was informed by locals that soldiers carried out mine clearance in one of the contaminated areas. The soldiers also erected warning signs in the area. However, in a neighboring contaminated area there has been no mine clearance or marking. Locals said that they had not received any risk education or victim assistance.

Since April 2013, Human Rights Watch has recorded at least seven new incidents of civilian casualties cause by landmines, including one death. Since late 2011, landmines in the area have killed at least two civilians and wounded twenty others.

In September 2014, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the Yemeni Mine Action Center suspended 30 percent of its high-priority survey and mine clearance activities due to a lack of funds.

Human Trafficking

Since 2006, and particularly since a weakening of government control in some areas following the 2011 uprising, human trafficking has thrived in Yemen. Traffickers hold African migrants in detention camps, torturing them to extort payment from their families, often with the complicity of local officials. Following the release of a report by Human Rights Watch documenting the trafficking industry, the government stated that it embarked on a number of raids against the smugglers.

It also requested the assistance of international organizations in addressing the rescued migrants’ immediate needs, and to facilitate the voluntary return of those wishing to return home. According to residents in the area where traffickers operate their detention camps, by July 2014, government forces had ceased their raids and the camps continued to function and held large numbers of refugees from Syria as well as African migrants.