All parties to the conflict, which controlled different parts of Yemen, continued to arbitrarily detain, forcibly disappear and unjustly prosecute human rights defenders, journalists, human rights and humanitarian workers, and people critical of the authorities’ human rights records and policies. Courts across Yemen sentenced people to death, sometimes after grossly unfair trials. All parties to the conflict arbitrarily restricted delivery of humanitarian aid. The Huthi de facto authorities continued to ban women from travelling without a male relative, undermining their right to work and other human rights. All parties to the conflict failed to protect women’s right to privacy online and to provide redress to survivors of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Prosecutions of LGBTI people continued. All parties to the conflict contributed to environmental degradation.

Background

The de facto continuation of the UN-brokered nationwide ceasefire contributed to a further decline in fighting and cross-border attacks. However, all parties to the conflict continued to sporadically attack civilian areas and frontlines including in Ta’iz, Sa’adah and Bayda governorates.

The Huthi armed forces attacked at least 57 commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, claiming they were linked to Israel, the USA or the UK. On 6 March, Huthi armed forces attacked the MV True Confidence in the Gulf of Aden, killing three crew members and injuring at least four others. They continued to arbitrarily detain the 25 crew members of the Galaxy Leader, which they seized on 19 November 2023.

US armed forces conducted naval and air strikes, some jointly with UK armed forces, against Huthi targets with the declared purpose of degrading the Huthis’ capabilities to threaten maritime trade and personnel.

The Huthis carried out missile and drone attacks against Israel on at least 48 occasions, with the stated aim of supporting Palestinians in Gaza. On 19 July a civilian was killed and four others injured in a drone attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. In retaliation, on 20 July, Israel carried out air strikes on Hodeidah port, critical for delivering humanitarian aid and food, and Ras Kathnib power station in Hodeidah governorate, reportedly killing at least six civilians and injuring at least 80 others. The strikes targeted two port cranes and fuel storage facilities.

On 29 September, Israel carried out air strikes on the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa, as well as al-Hali and Ras Kathnib power stations, in Hodeidah governorate, reportedly killing five civilians and injuring at least 57 others.

In December the Huthis claimed 17 attacks against Israel. On 21 December, a missile attack hit a playground in Jaffa, reportedly injuring 16 civilians. Israel conducted air strikes on 19 and 26 December on ports in Hodeidah governorate, power stations in Hodeidah and Sana’a governorates, and Sana’a International Airport. The air strikes reportedly killed at least 13 civilians, injured dozens and caused damage to ports and the airport.

Extreme weather caused deaths, destroyed homes and livelihoods, exacerbated internal displacement and increased food insecurity.

Freedom of expression, association and assembly

All parties to the conflict continued to crush dissent and stifle civil society. Among those targeted were political opponents, human rights defenders, journalists, human rights and humanitarian workers, religious minorities and people critical of the authorities’ human rights records and policies.

Huthi de facto authorities

On 2 January the Huthi security and intelligence service arrested judge Abdulwahab Mohammad Qatran for his online criticism of the Huthi de facto authorities. He was arbitrarily detained at the Huthi-controlled security and intelligence detention centre in the capital, Sana’a, for more than five months, during which he was denied his right to a lawyer and spent more than one month in prolonged solitary confinement. He was released on 12 June after pledging not to publish his views on social media.¹

In June the Huthi security forces arbitrarily detained 13 UN staff and dozens of staff from local and international NGOs.² In December, Huthi authorities reportedly released three of the detainees. Their arrests coincided with a Huthi-led media campaign accusing human rights and humanitarian organizations and their staff of “conspiring” against Yemen’s interests.

Between June and August the Huthi de facto authorities released the remaining five members of the Baha’i religious minority who had been arbitrarily detained with 12 others for more than a year without charge. They were detained after Huthi armed forces stormed a peaceful gathering in a private residence in Sana’a on 25 May 2023.³ As a condition of their release, some were forced to sign pledges that they would refrain from engaging in Baha’i-related activities.

Southern Transitional Council

The Southern Transitional Council (STC) de facto authorities continued to unlawfully and arbitrarily restrict the work of civil society organizations and human rights defenders in the southern governorate of Aden.

On 26 May a group of armed men accompanying women from the STC-supported Southern Women Union forcibly took over the Yemeni Women Union centre, an independent civil society organization in Sira district, Aden. The armed men denied the staff access to the centre, preventing the provision of protective services to women.⁴ In June the centre’s staff were able to regain access and resume activities after agreeing to allow the Southern Women Union to operate from within the centre.

Government of Yemen

The internationally recognized government of Yemen continued to harass, arbitrarily detain and prosecute journalists in areas under its control, including in Ta’iz, Ma’rib and Hadramout governorates.

According to Marsadak, a Yemeni observatory for media freedoms, on 5 May the Public Funds Court in Hadramout governorate sentenced journalist Ali Salmeen al Awbathani to a six-month suspended prison term for publishing content criticizing a public institution.

Right to a fair trial

Huthi de facto authorities

The Huthi de facto authorities continued to use the Huthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a (Sana’a SCC) as a tool for political repression by sentencing people to prolonged prison terms and the death penalty following grossly unfair trials. The Huthis’ prosecutorial authorities continued to use charges of “spying” to prosecute political opponents and silence peaceful dissent.

On 1 June the Sana’a SCC sentenced 44 people to death, 16 of them in their absence, on trumped-up spying charges following an unfair mass trial. According to their lawyer, the 28 detained defendants were forcibly disappeared for nine months following their arrest and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment to extract forced “confessions”.

Human rights defender Fatma al-Arwali remained at risk of execution after the Sana’a SCC convicted her of “aiding an enemy country” and sentenced her to death on 5 December 2023 following a grossly unfair trial.⁵

On 20 August the Sana’a SCC extended the sentence of journalist Nabil al-Sidawi by one year. Huthi security and intelligence services had detained him on 21 September 2015. He was held without charge or trial for around four years and was sentenced in 2022 by the Sana’a SCC to eight years in prison on spying charges following a grossly unfair trial.

Southern Transitional Council

On 28 May the Aden Specialized Criminal Court sentenced journalist Ahmad Maher to four years in prison following a grossly unfair trial on charges of disseminating false and misleading news and forging identity documents.⁶ Security forces affiliated with the STC arrested him in Aden in August 2022 and subjected him to torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations at Dar Sa’ad police station to force him to “confess” to involvement in an attack on the police station in March 2022. He was denied the rights to adequate defence, a lawyer of his choosing, presumption of innocence and not to self-incriminate. On 25 December the Aden Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal acquitted Ahmad Maher, but he continued to be detained after the Specialized Criminal Prosecution conditioned his release on providing a guarantor with a “commercial guarantee”, a condition the family could not meet.

Denial of humanitarian access

Access to food, safe drinking water, a healthy environment and adequate health services remained highly restricted. More than 2.7 million children were acutely malnourished according to UNICEF. According to OCHA, 18.2 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection services and almost half of the population faced food and nutrition insecurity. Yemen experienced another outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea and cholera, with hundreds of cases reported daily.

Parties to the conflict continued to impose arbitrary administrative and bureaucratic constraints on the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The Huthi de facto authorities intensified their restrictions on the work of humanitarian organizations. Their arbitrary detention in June of dozens of UN and local and international NGO staff (see above) reduced these organizations’ ability to provide humanitarian aid and protection services. In September the UN suspended all non-lifesaving or sustaining activities in Huthi-controlled areas to minimize the risk to aid workers.

In August the Huthi-run Supreme Council for Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation reiterated the Huthis’ restrictive policies on humanitarian activities in meetings with UN and INGO staff.

The fragmentation of power in southern Yemen, which left some ministries under the control of the internationally recognized government and others under the control of the STC, continued to slow the approval of aid projects and travel permits, disrupting aid delivery.

Sexual and gender-based discrimination and violence

Women continued to face online blackmail and harassment on Facebook, facilitated by the authorities’ failure to take adequate measures to protect women’s right to privacy online or to provide redress to survivors of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. This was facilitated by insufficient preventive action by Meta, Facebook’s owner, to ensure that its reporting mechanisms for online violence were accessible and culturally sensitive to socially conservative contexts including Yemen.⁷

The Huthi de facto authorities continued to restrict women’s right to freedom of movement without the accompaniment or written approval of a male guardian (mahram). Among its effects, this restricted women’s right to work and the ability of Yemeni women humanitarian workers to conduct fieldwork and deliver aid. Humanitarian workers reported that the mahram requirement was also increasingly enforced on an ad hoc basis in government-held areas, including Ta’iz and Ma’rib governorates.

LGBTI people’s rights

Parties to the conflict continued to target and prosecute LGBTI people solely for their actual or presumed gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

On 23 January the Huthi-affiliated criminal court in Dhamar in northern Yemen sentenced nine men to death – seven by stoning and two by crucifixion – while 23 other men were handed prison sentences of between six months and 10 years on various charges including “homosexuality”, “spreading immorality” and “immoral acts”.

On 1 February the court of first instance in Ibb in southern Yemen handed death sentences to 13 male students and sentenced three others to flogging on charges of “spreading homosexuality”.⁸

Right to a healthy environment

The Huthis’ maritime attacks and the Israeli attacks on Hodeidah port posed significant environmental risks, threatening marine life and the livelihoods of coastal communities, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

On 18 February the Huthis attacked the MV Rubymar. On 2 March it sank approximately 26km west of the port of Mocha, in eastern Yemen. The vessel was carrying some 21,000 tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertilizer, which posed an environmental risk in the Red Sea.

On 12 June the Huthis attacked the MV Tutor. It sank on 18 June with its cargo of 80,000 tonnes of coal.

On 16 July the Huthis attacked the oil tanker Chios Lion. An oil slick initially measuring 220km long was seen near the site of the strike, threatening the Farasan marine sanctuary, according to the Conflict and Environment Observatory.

On 20 July, Israeli air strikes on Hodeidah port and Ras Kathnib power station in Hodeidah governorate targeted fuel storage facilities, setting them ablaze for at least four days. The strike on Hodeidah port caused fuel spills into the harbour to the detriment of its marine environment.

The mismanagement of oil infrastructure by the government in Shabwa governorate continued to cause severe pollution. In July, damage to an oil pipeline caused large quantities of crude oil to spill across hundreds of meters of coastline near the village of Ayn Bamabad.

1. Yemen: Further Information: Judge Released From Arbitrary Detention: Abdulwahab Mohammad Qatran, 20 June ↩︎
2. “Yemen: Huthi authorities must immediately release arbitrarily detained staff from UN and civil society organizations”, 4 July ↩︎
3. Yemen: Further Information: Four Arbitrarily Detained Baha’is Released, 6 September ↩︎
4. “Yemen: STC de facto authorities must ensure safety of women’s shelter following takeover of Yemeni Women Union centre”, 6 June ↩︎
5. Yemen: Woman Human Rights Defender at Risk of Execution: Fatma al-Arwali, 1 February ↩︎
6. Yemen: Further Information: Journalist Sentenced to Four Years in Jail: Ahmad Maher, 25 June ↩︎
7. Yemen: “My Life Was Completely Destroyed”: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Yemen, 5 November ↩︎
8. “Yemen: Huthis must stop executions and release dozens facing LGBTI charges”, 9 February ↩︎