Arbitrary Detentions and Disappearances

All parties to the conflict have engaged in the arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture and other ill-treatment of individuals over the past years. These have included persons from all walks of life, targeted solely for their political, religious or professional affiliations or for their peaceful activism.

The internationally recognized Yemeni government for example has harassed, threatened and arbitrarily detained activists, including human rights activists. UAE-backed forces in southern Yemen conducted a campaign of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearance, including 51 men whose cases Amnesty International documented, who were being held in a network of secret prisons, in conditions amounting to what would constitute war crimes.

Huthi forces have arbitrarily arrested and detained critics and opponents as well as journalists, human rights activists and members of the Baha’i community. Amnesty International has documented the cases of 66 individuals, the vast majority men, whose proceedings are all ongoing – except one – before the Sana’a-based Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) – a court traditionally reserved for terrorism-related cases. In all the documented cases, the Huthis and their allied forces subjected the individuals to scores of violations, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detentions and torture and ill-treatment.

HAMID HAYDARA

Hamid Haydara is a Yemeni of Baha’i affiliation who, like others in his community, has paid years of his life simply as a result of his religious affiliation, at the hands of the Huthi forces. Detained since December 2013, Hamid Haydara went through a fundamentally flawed process, including trumped-up charges, an unfair trial and credible allegations that he was tortured and ill-treated in custody, before he was sentenced to death in January 2018 for allegedly collaborating with Israel and forging official documents. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience. He is currently in the process of appealing the sentence.  

In September 2019, a group of 24 Baha’is of varying ages, including the teenage daughter of Hamid Haydara and his wife, were charged with various serious offences, including espionage for foreign states, some of which can carry the death penalty.

THE TEN JOURNALISTS

A group of 10 journalists, Abdelkhaleq Amran, Hisham Tarmoom, Tawfiq al-Mansouri, Hareth Humid, Hasan Annab, Akram al-Walidi, Haytham al-Shihab, Hisham al-Yousefi, Essam Balgheeth and Salah al-Qaedi have been detained by the Huthi de facto authorities since the summer of 2015 and are being prosecuted on trumped-up spying charges for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression. Over the course of their detention the men were forcibly disappeared, held in intermittent incommunicado detention, were deprived of access to medical care and at least three of them were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. They have been held in solitary confinement since April 2019. Their trials have not started yet and it is not clear when they might take place.

YOUSSEF AL-BAWAB AND THE 30 ACADEMICS

Youssef al-Bawab, a 45-year-old father of five, is a linguistics professor and political figure. He was arbitrarily arrested in October 2016 as he exited his local mosque in Sana’a. Later that night, the Huthi de facto authorities raided his house and confiscated his belongings. It took his relatives three months before they were able to locate him and were permitted to visit him. The circumstances of his arrest, followed by the authorities’ refusal to disclose his fate and whereabouts amount to an enforced disappearance. In April 2017 he was charged with several offences, including assisting the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition with intelligence regarding military objectives and organizing assassinations; most of these charges carry the death penalty. Throughout his detention, proceedings against Youssef al-Bawab were seriously flawed.

On 9 July 2019, the SCC sentenced him and 29 others, mostly academics and political figures, to death on charges of spying for the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition, following a grossly unfair trial and due process violations. The 30 men, who were all arrested between 2015 and 2016 by the Huthis and allied forces, are in the process of appealing their sentence.

ASMAA AL-OMEISSY

In 2016, Asmaa al-Omeissy, a 23-year-old mother of two young children, was on her way from southern Yemen to Sana’a to seek safety and reunite with her father. Instead, she was stopped and detained by the Huthis at a checkpoint and was subjected to a brutal ordeal that led her to become the first known Yemeni woman on death row on “state-security” charges.

During her detention, Asmaa al-Omeissy was severely beaten; she was also forced to watch two other detainees hung from the ceiling by their wrists as they were kicked and punched. It was not until May 2017 that she was finally charged and referred to the SCC which usually handles “terrorism” and “state security” cases. While the three men in the same case were released on bail, she remained in custody and on 30 January 2017, the judge sentenced her to death. On 9 July 2019 the judge reversed her death sentence and handed her a 15-year prison sentence instead.

THE MOTHERS OF ABDUCTEES ASSOCIATION

The Mothers of Abductees Association was established in Sana’a in April 2016, some two years after the Huthis took control of Sana’a, arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing thousands of people on the basis of their perceived political allegiance or religious beliefs.

Many women found themselves robbed of their husbands, sons, brothers or fathers and many were left isolated, so they turned to each for support and activism. Since 2016, the Mothers Abductees Association has mobilized to highlight the plight of detainees and demand the respect of rights and due process.

Civilians' Struggle for Survival

As well as causing the deaths and injuries of thousands of civilians, the parties to the conflict have exacerbated an already severe humanitarian crisis resulting from years of poverty and poor governance causing immense human suffering.

Given the protracted nature of the conflict, the coping mechanisms of the civilian population are exacerbated and stretched thin. Some 24.1 million Yemenis today require humanitarian assistance to survive. According to UNICEF, the conflict has left at least 500,000 public sector workers without salaries for three years, and the organization estimates that 12.24 million children are in need.

The dire economic conditions have worsened the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country. With the inflation of the Yemeni Riyal and the government unable to pay public sector salaries, September 2018 saw a wave of demonstrations spreading across the south of Yemen, with people protesting against corruption and blaming the government for the deterioration of the economy, which has left the vast majority of Yemenis unable to buy basic commodities.

In the intervening time, the on-off battle for Hodeidah that started in late 2017 resulted in hundreds of civilian causalities; the UN reported that nearly a million people fled the governorate during the year. According to people who fled, mined roads, Huthi checkpoints and the hazards along the way meant that, for some, what should be on average a six-hour drive from Hodeidah to Aden became a terrifying ordeal lasting up to three days.

Human rights violations and abuses by all sides

All parties to the conflict in Yemen committed serious violations of international humanitarian law. Huthi forces, which control large parts of the country, indiscriminately shelled residential neighbourhoods in Yemen and launched missiles indiscriminately into Saudi Arabia. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which supported the internationally recognized Yemeni government, continued to bomb civilian infrastructure and carry out indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.

Since 2015, the Saudi and UAE-led Coalition carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate air strikes on civilian and civilians’ objects, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets, mosques, weddings and funerals. Amnesty International documented 42 coalition air strikes that appear to have violated international humanitarian law, many of which amount to war crimes. These have resulted in 518 civilian deaths and 433 civilian injured.

On 28 June, a precision-guided munition made in the USA was used in a coalition air strike on a residential home in the governorate of Ta’iz, killing six civilians. Among those killed were three children. On 1 September, an air strike on a Huthi-controlled detention facility in the south-western city of Dhamar killed 130 detainees and injured 40 others.

Amnesty International has documented the Coalition’s use of six different types of cluster munitions, including US, UK, Brazilian-manufactured models in Sana’a, Hajjah, Amran and Sa’da governorates.

Imprecise weapons are used on daily basis in residential areas, causing civilian causalities such indiscriminate attack violate the laws of war.

We buried them the same day because they had turned into severed limbs. There were no corpses left to examine. The flesh of this person was mixed with that person. They were wrapped up [with blankets] and taken away.

Armed groups also stand accused of a variety of human rights abuses, including the use of imprecise weapons in residential areas. Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented the impact of the continuing armed conflict in Ta’iz, including indiscriminate shelling by Huthi forces as well as other militias that have led to hundreds of casualties.

Similarly, in May 2018, Amnesty International interviewed 34 civilians who arrived in Aden after the clashes displaced them from several villages and towns in Hodeidah governorate. They spoke of terrifying mortar attacks, air strikes, landmines and other dangers amid the new Hodeidah offensive. Huthi forces also deliberately militarized hospitals by positioning fighters on the roof of a fully functioning hospital in Hodeidah, placing numerous civilians inside the building in danger.

I also saw a man walking as fast as he could while carrying a bag of his own urine. He was still attached to a urinary catheter while making his escape. The scene will stay with me for the rest of my life. There were many children too. Some parents were carrying their children. I saw 10 or 12 children among everyone else trying to flee.

Notwithstanding the military operations, all parties to the conflict have also actively contributed to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The Coalition has imposed restrictions on the entry of essential goods and aid such as food, fuel and medical supplies into Yemen, while the Huthi de facto authorities have obstructed the movement of humanitarian aid within the country. These restrictions have adversely impacted Yemeni civilians’ access to basic and necessary services, including food and clean water. They have severely impacted provision of health care, partly as a result of the lack of availability of fuel to run hospitals.

The continued conflict led to a political and security vacuum and the establishment of a safe haven for armed groups and militias, assisted by outside states. An investigation by Amnesty International revealed that children as young as eight years old were raped in the Yemeni city of Ta’iz. The suspected perpetrators, including members of militias backed by the Coalition, are yet to be held to account.