Three heads of the UN entities demanded the immediate release of their staff members and all other people illegally detained by the Houthis in Sana’a.
In a joint statement, the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and the Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers’ programme, Toily Kurbanov, reiterate their demand for the immediate release of their staff members and all other people illegally detained by the Houthis in Sana’a.
The statement noticed that “It has been two years since two staff of UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Office were detained in Sana'a, Yemen”.
It added “Since then, we have not received information about the reasons for their detention or their status”.
According to the statement the Houthis have repeatedly assured that their release would be imminent, but nothing happened.
The heads of the UN entities disclosed that “In August and October2023, two more UNESCO and UN Human Rights Office colleagues, the latter a UN Volunteer, were detained in Sana’a, without information about the reasons for their detention or their whereabouts”.
They added: “This is a profoundly alarming situation as it reveals a complete disregard for the rule of law”, and concluded the statement by describing these detentions by the Houthis as unacceptable and violations of the privileges and immunities accorded to UN staff under international law.