Yemen - Latest Press Releases

Yemen: incommunicado detention of Mr. Yahia Al-Shahrani

YEM - News | 23 May 2008
Alkarama for Human Rights, May 23, 2008

Alkarama sent on May 19, 2008 a communication to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention asking it to intervene in the case of Mr. Yahia Al-Shahrani, who was arrested and detained since August 15, 2007, without legal procedure, by the intelligence services (Al Amn Assiyassi) in Sanaa.

Yemen: arrest and secret detention of Abdeladhim Al Hattar

YEM - News | 13 May 2008
Alkarama for Human Rights, May 13, 2008

Alkarama wrote on May 9, 2008 to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention communication, asking it to intervene in the case of Mr. Al Hattar arrested on December 14, 2007 and held incommunicado for three months.

Yemen: the arrest of Mr. Muhammad Muftah, the chairperson of "Alhaq" party (Shura) council (*)

YEM - News | 14 January 2008

Alkarama for Human Rights, 8 January 2008

Alkarama human rights organization called upon the UN working group on arbitrary detentions and the special rapporteur on torture to intervene with Yemeni authorities concerning the arrest of Mr. Muhammad Muftah, which took place on Dec 27, 2007.

Yemen: Arrest and detention of nine Eritrean asylum-seekers

YEM - News | 14 August 2007
See Also
- 1951 Convention relating to the Statusof Refugees and the 1967 Protocol [pdf]
- 2nd periodic report by UPR on Yemen (13 July 2007) [pdf]
- US State Department Human Rights Report on Yemen for 2008 [link]
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [link]
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [link]
- Yemen's Government Website [link]

On 13 August 2007, Alkarama for Human Rights wrote to the Ambassador of Yemen, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Minister of Human Rights Huda Ali Abd al-Latif Al Ban, the Minister of the Interior Rashed Muhammad Al Alimi, the Attorney General Abdallah Al-Alufi, and the President of Yemen Al Fariq Ali Abdallah Salih, calling on them to intervene in the case of nine Eritreans who, having fled their country, were arrested on their arrival in Yemen even though they had presented themselves to the authorities and asked for asylum.

These people, all but one of whom were soldiers, had deserted the army and fled their country on board an Eritrean army boat and had landed at the port of Midi in Hijja province on 17 July 2007.  They immediately presented themselves to the Yemeni authorities, asking for political asylum.  In their hearings with the competent authorities, they explained that they had been conscripted into the army against their will to perform their obligatory military service and had been kept in the army longer than the legal period of mobilisation. They also affirmed that they had been repeatedly maltreated for having asked to leave the army after the end of their military service, and that they refused to fight Eritrea’s southern wars against its neighbours.  They said they were discriminated against and treated like slaves, working without pay, and that their being kept in the army illegally was causing great problems for their families, deprived of their wages.  Yet they were taken to the capital, Sanaa, and put in Jawazat prison, where they remain today in terrible conditions, anxious about their future.

In case of refoulement, these people run a great risk of being arrested on their arrival and detained secretly without trial or verdict for an indeterminate time; they will quite certainly undergo torture – commonly used by the Eritrean military – or be threatened with extrajudicial execution.

These people’s names are:
1-Faraj Othman Muhammad, born in 1989 (soldier)
2-Muhammad Abdu Lahada, born in 1983 (soldier)
3-Gebrait Dawit Hailé Makelé, born in 1977 (soldier)
4-Jamal Mahmoud Al Amin, born in 1988 (soldier)
5-Siraj Ahmed Dawud, born in1984 (soldier)
6-Yasin Othman Amar, born in 1987 (soldier)
7-Abdullah Ibrahim Mahmud, born in 1985 (civilian)
8- Barkhat Yohannes Abraha, born in 1975 (soldier)
9- Muhammad Ahmad Abdullah, born in 1983 (soldier)

Yemen ratified the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees on 18 January 1980, and must under its terms allow these nine Eritreans to present a request for asylum and, in any case, contest any procedure of expulsion judicially.

Yemen is also party to the Convention against Torture, and must under its terms take care that any measure of expulsion or refoulement of people to another state be in conformity with Article 3, which forbids any expulsion or refoulement to a country where there are serious grounds for believing that these people are at risk of being tortured.

Alkarama for Human Rights therefore calls on the Yemeni authorities to respect the obligations they undertook by ratifying these treaties, to free these nine people, and to accord them the right to make a request for asylum.

Troubling terror charges against outspoken Yemeni editor

YEM - News | 06 July 2007

Alkarama for Human Rights has received the following urgent report of a probable violation of freedom of speech:

New York, July 5, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by vague terrorism charges brought on Wednesday against the editor of an opposition news Web site. A state security court charged Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani, former editor of the online newspaper Al-Shoura, which is affiliated with the Popular Forces Union Party, with conspiring with antigovernment rebels.

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Yemen - HR Instruments

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

ICCPR: Accessed on 09.02.1987
Optional Protocol: No

State report: Due on 30.03.2015 (6th)
Last concluding observations: 23.04.2012

Convention against Torture (CAT)

CAT: Accessed on 05.11.1991
Optional Protocol: No
Art. 20 (Confidential inquiry): Yes
Art. 22 (Individual communications): No

State report: Overdue since 14.05.2014 (3rd)
Last concluding observations: 17.12.2009

International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED)

No

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Last review: 01.2014 (2nd cycle)
Next review: -

National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)

No