اقرأ المحتوى باللغة العربية
Ongoing human rights violations continue to prevent sustainable peace in Yemen, according to a panel of human rights lawyers, experts and activists who participated in a webinar hosted by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies on August 14, 2024. The panel marked the one year anniversary of the Yemen Declaration for Justice and Reconciliation, a landmark treatise that articulates the signatories’ collective demand for a clear transitional justice framework within a peace settlement.
Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, senior researcher at the Sana’a Center, said that the Declaration unified Yemeni civil society’s calls for justice and to end human rights violations in Yemen. “A single organization on its own cannot leverage international pressure, especially as the Houthi police state intensifies,” said Shuja Al-Deen.
In the year since the Declaration’s signing, the Houthis have ramped up their brutal campaign of arrests, culminating in the recent round of raids targeting activists, INGO workers, researchers and diplomatic staff. Mahdi Balghaith, President of the Musaala Human Rights Organization, said that the wave of detentions came just as there was real hope for peace in Yemen, noting that “this caused a new wave of fear in civil society.” The Houthis, observed the panelists, feel emboldened by years of inaction from the international community and lack of accountability towards their local staff. “The families of detainees no longer trust the international community,” Balghaith continued, as dangerous social stigma follows those accused of espionage.
“Impunity for extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances,” said human rights lawyer Huda Al-Sarari, have affected Yemen’s reputation and increased Yemen’s isolation, expanding the conflict and delaying success in peace negotiations.
The panelists agreed that the UN Roadmap to Peace must include a clearly defined justice process. Human Rights Watch researcher Niku Jafarnia said that the OSESGY does not yet see mechanisms for justice as a priority within a peace deal. “Getting the peace deal struck seems juxtaposed against seeking accountability and justice.” Jafarnia acknowledged that formal justice mechanisms are commonly perceived as preventing a peace deal. “This is a myth, and one that we need to break down.”
To conclude, Shuja Al-Deen urged organizations to condemn these arrests, reiterating that the international community and the OSESGY should not let a political settlement come at the expense of victims. “Short-term political wins that do not address root causes will cause more long-term harm.” Involving survivors of rights abuses is the only way to guarantee that victims play a central role in post-conflict justice.
“Transitional justice and reconciliation are not a luxury,” added Al-Sarari, underlining that justice is an essential prerequisite to sustainable peace in Yemen.
The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies is an independent think tank that seeks to foster change through knowledge production, with a focus on Yemen and the surrounding region. The Center’s publications and programs, offered in Arabic and English, cover political, social, economic, and security developments, aiming to impact policy locally, regionally, and internationally.