The US State Department has praised INSAF Center for Defending Freedoms & Minorities, and the efforts made by the Center’s President, Eman Homaid, to defend freedoms and minorities in Yemen.
This came in a report published on the US State Department website entitled “Pioneers in the Struggle for Religious Freedom: Changemakers in the Middle East Today” by authors Cassandra Harris and Sean Comber, who serve as Foreign Affairs Officers in the Office of International Religious Freedom.
The report indicated that the conflict which erupted in 2014, in which the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels expelled the internationally recognized Yemeni government from the capital, Sana’a, has resulted in heavy losses for the Yemeni people, including members of religious and ethnic minorities and their supporters.
According to the report, Eman Abdullah Homaid – chairperson of INSAF Center for Defending Freedoms & Minorities (INSAF Center) – described in a statement published in March 2020 that “Yemen is turning more and more every day into a place of intolerance.”
The report stated, ” That dawning reality propelled Homaid to co-found the INSAF Center in 2019 to defend and promote the human rights of members of minority groups in Yemen.”
Additionally, the report stated that the center documents human rights violations, defends victims, conducts research and studies on minorities, and holds awareness-raising events on them. The report went on: “In 2019, it (INSAF Center) published a detailed report, “Minorities in Yemen: Reality & Challenges,” on the history and current status of five minority groups.”
The report praised the efforts of the center, noting that in recent times, the center has been explicit in calling on the Houthis to release many Baha’is detained due to their religious beliefs.
