Okeil: The international community must end Houthi violations and refer crimes against civilians in Yemen to the International Criminal Court

Ali Muhammad: The arbitrary practices of the Houthis constitute a grave breach of all international norms and standards for human rights

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights sent an urgent complaint to the United Nations Special Procedures, in particular the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, regarding the detention of three public figures in Ibb governorate, central Yemen, including Hamoud Al-Awadi, head of the Civil Alliance for Peace and National Reconciliation. Maat demanded the relevant states for special procedures to issue a statement to pressure the Houthi group to release the three figures and reveal their place of detention. It is the latest development in a series of continuous violations of the Houthi group, which Security Council Resolution No. 2624 of 2022 described as a terrorist group.

In its complaint, Maat stated that on March 28, 2021, the Preventive Security Service of the Houthi group arbitrarily detained Hamoud Al-Awadi, head of the Civil Alliance for Peace and National Reconciliation and a professor of sociology at Sana'a University, along with Eng. Abdul Rahman Al-Olfi and Dr. Anwar Shaab, who are Yemeni public figures led initiatives for national reconciliation in different governorates in Yemen. Elements of the Preventive Security arrested three figures at exactly nine o'clock in Ibb governorate, central Yemen, while they were on their way to Aden, ready to travel to Saudi Arabia, and took them to an unknown place.

It is worth noting that the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council had invited the three personalities in mid-March 2022 to attend the ongoing Yemeni consultations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hamoud Al-Awadi, head of the Civil Alliance for Peace and National Reconciliation, had coordinated with the Houthi political office and obtained the office's approval to attend these consultations, an approval that the Houthis repudiated by detaining him arbitrarily. Maat confirms that this arbitrary measure contradicts the second subparagraph of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms the right of every individual to leave any country, including his own, and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirms the same rights. Maat confirms that no arrest warrant was issued for the three individuals, and they were neither allowed to communicate with a lawyer nor communicate with their families, in a flagrant violation of the United Nations Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under any form of detention or imprisonment.

In this context, Ayman Okeil, an international human rights expert and president of Maat, said that the detention of the three Yemeni figures who led national reconciliation initiatives in Yemen reflects a recurring pattern of arbitrary practices that the Houthi group has practiced recently in the areas under their control. Okeil called on the international community to put an end to these violations, which contradict Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and urged the UN Security Council to refer the Houthi crimes to the International Criminal Court.

For his part, Ali Muhammad, a senior researcher at Maat, said that the arbitrary practices against civilians in Yemen represent a flagrant violation of all international norms and standards for human rights. Finally, Maat demanded the UN special procedures to issue a joint statement to pressure the Houthis to release the three Yemeni figures, immediately reveal their place of detention and allow them freedom of movement in accordance with international treaties and covenants.