The DY YAMNT Organization for Rights and Development monitored 481 violations committed by the Houthi militia in the capital secretariat in 2023.

In its report, which was announced today at an event held in the city of Marib, which included the human rights situation in the capital’s secretariat for the year 2023 AD, the organization explained that the Houthi militia’s violations were distributed among murder, casualty, torture, arrests, looting of public and private property, attacks on female lawyers and citizens, Child recruitment, violations of childhood and women.

According to the report, the number of killings reached (16) cases, including (9) cases of killing by direct bullets, while the cases of killing resulting from torture amounted to seven cases. Cases of casualty and physical assaults reached (69) cases, including seven cases of attacks on female lawyers in courts and prosecution offices. Cases of kidnapping, forced disappearance, and torture in the capital secretariat varied reached (65), where the Houthi group kidnapped (55) men, (6) women, and (4) children.

The team also documented (28) cases of encroachment on public property and (39) cases of encroachment on private property. The report monitors (43) cases of political death sentences issued against male and female activists, politicians, and military personnel. The team recorded (40) cases of recruitment of underage children, in addition to (23) cases of various violations against women.

The team recorded (45) cases of sectarian activities and events. The Houthi militia continues its abuse regarding job dismissal, whereas the report monitored (42) cases of job abuse in the capital secretariat during the year 2023 AD. Monitoring and documentation statistics indicate that (44) attacks, suppression of public freedoms, restrictions on citizens, and forced displacement were monitored, as cases of forced displacement during the reporting period amounted to (27) cases, in addition to one case, which was the demolition of a house.

The report revealed that September 2023 witnessed the largest number of documented violations, which amounted to 73 violations. It is the same month in which the Houthi militia escalated its frenzied campaigns against those celebrating the 61st anniversary of the September 26 Revolution, with assaults, persecutions, kidnappings, disappearances, and shooting down the national flag, and preventing the people in the Capital Municipality from celebrating the anniversary of the people’s revolution that overthrew the priestly Imam's rule.

The report indicates that the year 2023 witnessed the largest tragic incident in the Bab al-Yemen area in the capital Sana’a, where on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, - at the end of the month of Ramadan - a horrific incident occurred in Maeen School that shook Yemeni society. It was an incident that prompted a stampede among those in need to obtain sums of money not exceeding $10. In that incident, 85 people died and 320 Yemeni citizens were injured. This incident reveals the extent of the difficult humanitarian situation that the Yemenis have reached after the Houthi militia took control of the country, plundering salaries, and starving civilians.

It was found that the Houthi militia is using the starvation of Yemenis as a weapon of war by plundering food aid, attacking workers in relief organizations, restricting the movement of aid and humanitarian workers, and reducing the quotas of beneficiaries, in addition to controlling the preparation and distribution of this aid or interfering in the preparation of lists of beneficiaries' names, robbing companies working to track the arrival of aid provided by international organizations, and this is only to double the suffering of citizens, prevent the arrival of aid, and deprive thousands of beneficiaries of the poorest families of their right to receive humanitarian aid.

The organization called on the Houthi militia to stop committing violations and crimes against citizens, politicians, and opponents, as well as to immediately release detainees in the capital, Sanaa. It also called for an end to issuing death sentences, exploiting the judiciary, attacking judges, and male and female lawyers, interfering in the independence of the judiciary, assaulting children and women, recruiting children and exploiting them in combat battles, as well as stopping changing school curricula and booby-trapping children’s minds with sectarian concepts that are inconsistent with the Yemeni constitution. And the laws in force in the country.

In its recommendations, the organization urged the Yemeni government to activate national and judicial mechanisms to protect human rights, punish perpetrators of violations, and work to ensure that victims reach justice in areas not under its control, away from the dominance of militias and armed groups. It also urged it to establish a court and prosecution specialized in human rights violations in Yemen.

The report called on the international community, the United Nations, its Secretary-General, and the UN envoy to Yemen to quickly intervene and put pressure on the Houthi group to stop issuing death sentences against opponents and women, as well as to stop political trials and stand up to violations against civilians.

The report stressed the international community, the United Nations, and its organizations to conduct a transparent and urgent investigation into all cases related to human rights violations and hold all those involved politically, legally, and criminally accountable by international charters and agreements and the rules of international humanitarian law.

The report also called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities to protect civilians through United Nations documents and the Geneva Conventions, the necessity of implementing legal accountability, establishing a culture of non-impunity, and prosecuting those involved in violations.