Insaf for Rights and Development condemns the kidnapping and raid carried out by the Houthis last week against UN employees, the office of its special envoy, its agencies, and civil society personnel.
Insaf stands in strong solidarity with the abductees and their families and demands that the Houthis release them immediately, hold accountable those who violate human rights and humanitarian work, and stop these brutal practices that will have dire consequences for the deteriorating humanitarian situation, especially in the areas under their control.
These actions are not the first of their kind, as they were preceded by a series of major and ongoing attacks for years against dozens of employees in the United Nations and international organizations, mistreating them to the extent that some of them died in Houthi prisons, as happened with Save The Children’s safety officer Hisham Al-Hakimi last October. The arrests also included employees of the US embassy in Sanaa and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), many of whom are still languishing in prisons without charges or fair procedures, along with hundreds of Yemeni political prisoners, journalists, and civilians.
These practices came after the Houthis issued collective death sentences against 45 Yemeni civilians, including Mr. Adnan Al-Harazi, Director of Broge Systems, which provided technical services and surveys to UN organizations working in the humanitarian field, not to mention hundreds of violations and arrests of politicians, journalists, civil society, women, and children, and the constant restrictions on the most basic necessities of human dignity for Yemenis.
The Houthi’s continuation of this barbaric approach, which strikes at the heart of the United Nations’ tasks and independence and strongly affects its ability to implement its mandate and function, comes as a result of a state of laxity in taking decisive positions regarding Houthi violations of humanitarian work, remaining silent about them, and continuing to work in an extremely hostile environment in Sanaa, so that the turn comes to its employees one after the other.
We appeal to the United Nations, its agencies, and all international organizations to do their utmost to release their employees, return them to their homes, and work to compensate them. These repeated practices by the Houthis require international organizations to immediately start transferring their offices to Aden and take decisive positions regarding Houthi violations against Yemenis first, and against employees and workers in the humanitarian and relief field, and UN and international organizations.
We call on the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and all international human rights organizations to take serious positions regarding the violations that Yemenis are constantly subjected to by the Houthis, because turning a blind eye to them is an inhuman position that made the Houthis persist in their violations to include the United Nations, its envoy, and its organizations.
June 8, 2024
