WARRING parties in Yemen, carried out serious international human rights and humanitarian law violations in Yemen in 2023, according to latest Human Rights Watch World Report .
The report found that “These violations included unlawful attacks which killed civilians, and arbitrary detentions. In Taizz, the country’s third-largest city, warring parties violated the rights to water, freedom of movement, and humanitarian access.”
“The international community has failed to follow through on its commitments to people in Yemen, while warring parties’ violations have only continued,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Without accountability for these abuses over the last nine years, there won’t be a foundation for a durable peace.”
In the 740-page World Report 2024, its 34th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries.
People in Yemen face one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than 21 million residents in need of assistance and suffering from inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure. Despite this, all parties to the conflict have taken actions that have deepened Yemenis’ suffering.
The Houthis have imposed an abusive siege on Taizz and blocked water from entering the public water network.
All parties to the conflict, including Houthi forces, have arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and mistreated detainees across Yemen. Hundreds of Yemenis have been detained at official and unofficial detention centers across the country. On May 25, Houthi forces stormed a private residence in Sanaa where Yemeni Bahais were meeting and detained and subsequently disappeared 17 people.
Yemeni women also face restrictions on their freedom of movement, both in Houthi-controlled areas and in government and Southern Transitional Council-controlled areas.
There has been virtually no accountability for violations committed by parties to the conflict. Since the United Nations Human Rights Council narrowly voted to end the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen in October 2021, there has been no independent international entity to monitor the human rights situation in Yemen and lay the foundation of accountability for widespread abuses.