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Yemen: Rights Radar Urges UN to Press for the Release of All Abductees by Houthis, Including 70 Humanitarian Workers The Hague, October 24, 2024 On the occasion of the International Day of the United Nations, celebrated on October 24 each year to mark the anniversary of the UN Charter’s declaration, Rights Radar for Human Rights, based in The Hague, Netherlands, renews its call for the United Nations and its human rights bodies to intensify efforts to reduce the number of victims of violations in Yemen. Rights Radar calls on the international community to increase pressure on the conflicting parties in Yemen to halt violations against civilians, particularly the Houthi militia, which is primarily accused of the most significant abuses, according to monitored and documented data and human rights reports issued by international bodies. According to Rights Radar’s monitoring team operating in approximately 20 Yemeni governorates, the total number of violations committed by the conflicting parties against civilians from September 2014 to June 2024 reached 86,718. These violations included killings, injuries, arrests, abductions, enforced disappearances, and attacks on both public and private property. These violations were committed, respectively, by the Houthi militia, the Arab coalition, the internationally recognized government, forces not affiliated with the legitimate Ministry of Defense, gunmen and unknown parties, U.S. forces, and extremist organizations. According to the data monitored by Rights Radar’s team during the specified period, the total number of civilians killed was 15,010, including 2,401 children, 1,084 women, and 11,525 men. The number of injured civilians was 23,165, including 5,146 children, 2,218 women, and 15,001 men. The number of individuals subjected to arrest, abduction, and enforced disappearance exceeded 26,089, including approximately 1,000 children, 285 women and girls, and 24,804 men. According to the National Authority for Prisoners and Abductees in Yemen, the number of individuals subjected to enforced disappearance has reached 1,585 civilians for varying periods, ranging from two months to five consecutive years, in areas controlled by the Houthi militia. This includes 34 women and 64 children, with 136 individuals still missing. Additionally, there have been three cases of enforced disappearance involving security authorities affiliated with the internationally recognized government. More than 70 employees and activists affiliated with local and international humanitarian organizations, including workers from United Nations agencies and other international bodies, remain forcibly disappeared by the Houthi militia. Among them are five women who have now spent over 120 days without any contact, leaving their families unaware of their detention conditions. Indeed, there are significant concerns among the families and relatives of the disappeared regarding their physical and psychological safety due to the lack of information about their conditions since their disappearance. This concern has intensified after the Houthi military apparatus referred several arbitrarily detained individuals, including three UN employees — two from UNESCO and one from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights — who were abducted between 2021 and 2023, to Houthi criminal prosecution. This step was widely condemned at all levels as a dangerous development that threatens the safety and lives of the detainees. Regarding property violations, there were a total of 22,454 incidents, including 18,973 violations of private property and 3,481 violations of public property. The Houthi militia alone committed 20,190 cases, while the Arab coalition forces were responsible for 952 cases. The remaining violations were attributed to various other parties involved in the conflict. According to the data on the parties responsible for the violations monitored by Rights Radar, the Houthi militia ranked first. Out of a total of 86,718 violations, the Houthis committed more than 24,081, while the remaining conflicting parties shared responsibility for the rest of the violations. It is important to highlight that the Houthi militia is tightening its security grip in the areas under its control. To this end, it has been actively suppressing all opposition to its policies and has expanded its list of malicious accusations. The militia utilizes police, prosecution, and judiciary agencies under its control to justify its violations and implement judicial rulings and decisions against various opponents, particularly political activists, writers, media professionals, and those working in the educational and humanitarian fields. To this end, the Houthis recently established a new security apparatus called “Police Intelligence,” led by Ali Hussein al-Houthi, the son of the founder of the Houthi militia. According to informed human rights sources in Sana’a, the aim of establishing this police force is to transfer the tasks of repression and abduction to the Ministry of Interior, in addition to the notorious Security and Intelligence Service which has been linked to many crimes of abuse and killing under torture. These repressive agencies are additional to those affiliated with the Houthi Ministry of Interior, and they aim to replicate Iranian repression and control mechanisms. Their goal is to establish a state of security dominance over all aspects of life, with the intent of terrorizing and subjugating civilians. In this context, it is noteworthy that the number of individuals killed by torture in Houthi prisons since 2014 has exceeded 400 victims. In light of these systematic violations, Rights Radar calls on the United Nations, represented by the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to utilize its legal mandate to take effective steps to save the lives of the abductees and detainees in Houthi prisons. The United Nations should urgently work to expedite the release of all abductees and detainees in Houthi prisons, as well as those who have been detained or disappeared in the prisons of the internationally recognized government or the Southern Transitional Council. It is useless to discuss any plan or roadmap for peace in Yemen while hundreds of abductees continue to face the risk of losing their lives due to torture or illegal judicial rulings based on fabricated, illogical charges. We call on the Houthi militia to respect international conventions related to human rights and to cease the policies of repression and intimidation that it employs against its opponents, primarily for malicious and political reasons. We also emphasize the right of Yemeni citizens to express their opinions and positions in accordance with human rights standards and as guaranteed by the Yemeni constitution and international conventions. The Houthi militia and its leaders bear legal responsibility for any repercussions related to the safety and lives of victims of violations. We also call on the internationally recognized government in Yemen and all military formations affiliated with it to serve as a true model of respect for rights and freedoms. They should positively handle freedoms of opinion and expression in the areas under their control and guarantee the right of everyone to defend themselves before various oversight and judicial bodies, and to enhance mutual respect between the citizen and the state. It is important to emphasize that the United Nations Charter should serve as a motivation and incentive for UN organizations and international bodies to intensify their efforts to promote the principles of human rights in Yemen. This should be done in a way that ensures the equality called for by the Charter, as a basis for guaranteeing rights and respecting freedoms in all their forms and levels.