The 51st Session of the Human Rights Council

12 September 2022 – 7 October 2022

General Debate Item 10: Technical Assistance and Capacity Building for Yemen

6 October 2022 

Statement of Association Ma’onah for Human Rights and Geneva International Centre for Justice

Delivered by Rawan Hijazi

Thank you, President,

We thank the Commission for Human Rights for the technical assistance it provides to many countries, and we believe that Yemen remains in dire need of this assistance. Perhaps everyone knows that the human rights situation in Yemen is at its worst, as the violations of the Houthi militia against the Yemeni people continue. These violations include extrajudicial killings, crimes of sexual and gender-based violence, mass arbitrary arrests, as well as torture, death sentences and restrictions on the freedom of journalists.

On the other hand, human rights organizations monitored more than 20 decisions and circulars issued by the militia between December 2017 and April 2022, to restrict and suppress the freedom and movement of women and their community activities. It even interfered in determining the type of clothing and personal necessities, as well as decisions that control birth control, and these decisions inflicted severe psychological and moral damage on women in Houthi-controlled areas.

Hence, the Maonah Association and the Geneva International Center for Justice stress the importance of technical assistance to organizations that defend women in Yemen. The Houthi group has persisted in suppressing women and inflicting the most severe penalties on every woman who demands rights, criticizes corruption, or refuses to submit to its extremist policies and ideas.

Thank you.