Amman and New York—A recent report released by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic highlights the immediate need to prioritize environmental and climate concerns in Yemen’s transitional justice efforts.
The report – Conflict and Climate: The Need for a Roadmap for Green Transitional Justice in Yemen – is based on interviews conducted inside Yemen and a global comparative analysis of other transitional justice processes. It argues that the intersections between armed conflict, environmental degradation, and climate change cannot be ignored.
“In Yemen, where many people rely on the agricultural and fisheries sectors for livelihoods amid a severe water crisis, the impact of environmental damage caused by conflict is deeply felt,” explained Yasmeen Al-Eryani, Executive Director for Knowledge Production at the Sana’a Center. “Environmental justice is not a luxury—it is essential for meaningful transitional justice and sustainable peace.”
Competition over natural resources, particularly water, has long been a major driver of conflict in Yemen. All the parties to the conflict have weaponized natural resources. Saudi-led coalition forces have targeted environmental infrastructure. The Houthi group has cut off access to crucial water sources through sieges and the laying of mines. Struggles over scarce resources have been exacerbated by a rise in the earth’s temperature, leading to increasing instances of prolonged drought periods, desertification, and devastating floods in Yemen. Among many ramifications, extreme weather events have impacted Yemen’s agriculture sector, which employs more than half of the country’s labor force. As a result, many Yemenis have been forced to migrate to urban areas, leading to a strain on the already fractured infrastructure, increasing land disputes, and worsening social tension.
While past local and international transitional justice initiatives have largely ignored the need to address climate justice concerns, the report highlights case studies from other contexts, like Colombia and Tunisia, where environmental harms were a component in broader transitional justice efforts.
“The decade-long conflict in Yemen has not only resulted in a catastrophic loss of life but also a calamitous degradation of land and water infrastructure,” said Sarah Knuckey, director of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic. “Yemeni leaders, international actors, and organizations involved in the peace process must consider environmental harms and seek to redress them through transitional justice mechanisms in a manner that reflects the depth of the relationship between the land and its people.”
The report concludes that redressing environmental harms as part of Yemen’s transitional justice process will help the country better address the root cause of many of its internal conflicts, thereby decreasing the likelihood of future hostilities and increasing the chances for a sustainable and just peace.