On Friday 2 March during the 37th session of the Human Rights Council, Yusuf al-Hoori delivered an intervention during the Item 3 Clustered Interactive Dialogue featuring the Rapporteur on truth, justice, and reparations. Al-Hoori’s intervention looked at the challenges awaiting Yemen in the post-conflict stage due to the devastation of Yemeni society, massive humanitarian crisis, and increasing fragmentation of the country into different spheres of influence. Click here for a PDF of his intervention.
Mr. Rapporteur,
We would like to call your attention to the conflict in Yemen between the Houthi forces and a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia. While the conflict is still underway, we are concerned about the destruction of critical infrastructure, the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, and the increasing fragmentation of the country that will impede future reconciliation.
Since March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has conducted thousands of airstrikes against the Houthi-held north that have devastated the area’s infrastructure, striking factories, hospitals, roads, bridges, and public spaces like markets. In addition to airstrikes, the coalition has blockaded northern Yemen’s ports and airports, restricting the amount of food, fuel, and medicine. In combination, the coalition’s measures have led to an almost complete breakdown in Yemeni society as well as a man-made humanitarian crisis.
In addition to the coalition’s attacks on Houthi-held territory in the north, United Arab Emirates-supported militias in the south have raised the possibility of secession. The fragmentation of the country has exacerbated the parties’ inability to come to a political settlement and end the war. Furthermore, relentlessly violent non-state actors like Al-Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula and the Islamic State affiliates have taken advantage of the chaos to claim territory, oppress local populations, and carry out additional atrocities.
We are concerned that Yemen’s fragmentation into different spheres of belligerent competing powers is pushing the country beyond repair in the post-conflict stage. What recommendations can the Rapporteur offer to help ensure that Yemen can safely and peacefully transition from the conflict to the post-conflict stage in such a way as to maintain a path toward justice and reconciliation for a united Yemen?
Thank you
