Yemen: Alkarama joins civil society organisations in warning against the widespread practice of enforced disappearances due to the impunity of perpetrators

Alkarama and other Yemeni and international human rights organisations issued a statement on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, celebrated on 30 August each year.

The joint statement calls for the urgent intervention of all parties to the conflict in Yemen to ensure the release of those arbitrarily detained, and the respect of their rights to dignity, safety and security.

The organisations urged to support efforts to end impunity, by supporting the establishment of an international investigative body to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence, prepare cases and identify victims of serious violations and crimes, including arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in Yemen.

All parties were also called upon to ensure that detainees have the right to a fair trial and access to the outside world. In addition, the organisations called on the parties to ensure that places of detention have adequate sanitary facilities and that detainees have access to necessary health care.

The organisations called for the publication of official lists of all detainees who died in detention centres and prisons, including the informal detention sites listed in this report. Furthermore, death certificates must be issued to the relatives of detainees who died in custody, adding that such certificates must be based on comprehensive forensic examinations. Access to these documents must be facilitated for families.

Also in their statement, the organisations reiterated their call on all parties to guarantee respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country, in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards, in particular the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Treatment or Punishment,  inhuman or degrading, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Finally, the signatories called for a thorough monitoring of the practice of arbitrary detention and other violations committed in Yemen. They issued recommendations to all parties to the conflict calling on them to comply with their obligations under international law, including by ensuring the protection of civilians.