Arbitrary Detention and Enforced disappearance

A Human Rights Report that Documents Enforced Disappearance, Arbitrary Detentions, and Cruel Treatment of Detainees in Yemen During the Period from January 1^st until June 30^th, 2018

This report documents the condition of human rights relating to the deprivation of freedoms and cruel treatment of detainees during the period from January 1^st until June 30^th, 2018. Among the most prominent of these violations are the crimes of abduction, arrest, and arbitrary detention, in addition to enforced disappearance, torture, and cruel treatment of detainees. These crimes have led to the deaths of some of the detainees, while others have been illegally executed. The report also covers the conditions in the prisons that are controlled by a number of parties to the armed conflict in Yemen.

The Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations has worked through a number of mechanisms to get information and reach victims, witnesses, and detention centers, including carrying out field visits, interview victims and witnesses, and using modern communication techniques to get information. The Yemeni Coalition has also relied on reports submitted to it through the media and social media sites. These reports are then investigated and documented either through field visits or through communication with a number of different sources. The Yemeni Coalition has also used technical and methodological means, like photography and television interviews. The team at the Yemeni Coalition has relied on a number of alternative sources of information in detention centers and the security and police departments that are under the control and supervision of the different parties to the conflict.

All of the parties to the conflict in Yemen have committed widespread violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law relating to the deprivation of freedom, cruel treatment of detainees, and related crimes, during the first half of 2018. The parties to the conflict that were monitored by the Yemeni Coalition are the Houthi militia, who are the most prominent perpetrator of violations committed in most of the governorates under their control, then the forces of the legitimate government, as well as forces not under the control of the Yemeni government, including the Security Belt Forces in Aden, Lahej, Abyan, and Al Dhalea, the Hadhrami Elite Forces and the Shabwani Elite Forces, the Security Directorate in Aden, the Counter Terrorism Forces in Aden, and the Abu Al Abbas Brigades in Taiz. In addition to that, extremist organizations, including Al Qaeda, have also been responsible for violations relating to the torture of prisoners. There are also unknown entities, individuals, and armed gangs that have carried out a number of violations relating to human dignity and deprivation of freedom against Yemenis.

The Yemeni Coalition has investigated, during the first half of 2018, the death of 36 detainees because of torture that they were subject to in prisons controlled by a number of different parties to the conflict in Yemen. These deaths included 1 women, 3 rights activists, 7 politicians and political party activities, 1 journalist, 13 soldiers, 4 laborers, 3 educators, 2 students, 1 businessman, and 1 victim whose profession was not known. 19 of them died in prisons controlled by forces that are not under the control of the Yemeni government, while the Houthi militia are accused of causing the death of 14 of them by torturing them in their prisons, and 2 of them died after being tortured by individuals from unknown parties. Al Qaeda is accused of tortured one person to death in one of its prisons. The Yemeni Coalition has also documented the field execution of prisoners in the cells and detention centers of forces that are not under the control of the government in Aden. The illegal execution of 14 prisoners was documented during the period covered by the report, out of a total of 34 individuals who were executed in the first half of 2018. The individuals executed were made up of 9 politicians and political activists and 5 soldiers.

During the period covered by the report, the Yemeni Coalition team documented the severe torture of 208 detainees in prisons and detention centers that are controlled by the parties to the conflict in Yemen, including 107 politicians and political activists, 6 journalists, 2 rights activists, 10 children, 2 women, 16 students, 15 educators, 13 businessmen, 12 soldiers, 12 laborers, 7 doctors and medics, 6 sheikhs, social figures, and other groups. From that group, the Houthi militia tortured 199 detainees, while government forces tortured 2 detainees, and 2 detainees were tortured by forces that are not under the control of the government.

The Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations documented the disappearance of 278 Yemenis in a number of Yemeni governorates, including 8 women, 6 children, 40 politicians and political activists, 7 journalists, 5 rights activists, 76 laborers, 35 soldiers, 32 students, 27 sheikhs and social figures, 10 businessmen, 3 doctors and academics, and 14 from other groups. The Houthis disappeared 239 of the total number, while government forces disappeared 24 of them, military forces loyal with the UAE disappeared 11 victims, and unknown entities disappeared 4 victims.

The Yemeni Coalition also documented the illegal detention and abduction of 1,076 Yemenis, including 42 children, 23 women, 230 politicians and political activists, 32 rights activists, 17 journalists, 307 laborers, 114 college and intermediate students, 81 soldiers, 64 educators, 60 businessmen, 44 sheikhs and social figures, 21 doctors and academics, and 31 distributed among other groups. The Houthi militia detained 851 detainees from the total number documented in this report, while government forces illegally detained 170 individuals, forces not controlled by the government detained 43 Yemenis, and 3 detentions were carried out by unknown entities.

The report also addresses the condition of the prisons that are used by the Yemeni parties to the conflict to deprive individuals of their freedoms. All of the parties to the conflict have secret prisons and ones that are publicly known. Most of these prisons do not have suitable tools to ensure the health and safety of the prisoners, and they do not have even the most basic levels of good treatment. The conditions in these prisoners are bad and are not suitable, and buildings that were not equipped as prisons and are not under the supervision of the Yemeni Prison Authority are being used as prisons. As for state prisons, they are also being used without the authority and supervision of the law.