Section 2: Peaceful Assembly
Throughout the conflict, Yemen has witnessed a shrinking civil space, particularly in regards the freedom to peacefully gather and demonstrate, despite that this had been a prominent form of protest for a number of years in the country before the conflict. The violence and oppression those seeking to gather and demonstrate have faced is a stark example of the broader damage done to the human rights situation in Yemen due to the war and practices of the warring parties.
In 2018, Mwatana documented three instances where Yemeni civilians making demands sought to use peaceful assembly and protest but faced oppression and new methods of abuse in response. Two incidents took place in the capital, Sana’a, and one in the city of Mukalla in southeastern Yemen.
Legal Framework
International human rights law remains in effect during an armed conflict. International human rights law protects the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Yemen has ratified, states: “The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law.”[1] While the Covenant allows some restrictions on certain rights during conflict or during an officially proclaimed public emergency, any restrictions must be exceptional, temporary in nature and limited “to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.” Certain fundamental rights, including the rights to life, to a fair trial and to be free from torture, mistreatment and arbitrary deprivation of liberty, must always be respected.
Yemeni law also confirms the right to protest. According to Yemeni law, “citizens all over the Republic, as well as political parties, mass organizations, and professional unions, have the right to organize peaceful protests and demonstrations.”[2]
Case Studies
- In the morning of Wednesday, 21 March 2018, a group of civilians supporting former President Ali Abdullah Saleh gathered in front of his house to celebrate the anniversary of his birth.
About 40 to 50 men and women started to gather in front of the eastern entrance to former President Saleh’s home, across from the Al Kumaim Commercial Center. People were carrying bouquets of flowers that they wanted to put in front of Saleh’s house. Suddenly, dozens of Ansar Allah (Houthis) armed men came out from Saleh’s home and nearby streets and started to harass the gathering. The armed men pushed some of the women gathering. Some residents of the neighborhood objected. Some of the armed men then attacked these men, beating them with rifle butts and taking them on military vehicles to unknown location. A group of women working for the Houthis then came carrying batons and electric prods. They started attacking the women gathered and took most of the people onto buses to the security directorate of Al Sabeen district.
“Shadi” (21 years old, pseudonym), a laborer, said: “I arrived at the Al Kumaim Center at around 9:30 am, as I do every day, and I saw men and women carrying flowers. There were around 40 to 50 of them, and they were gathering in the street that led to the home of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Houthi armed men were standing in their way, and they would not allow them to reach the entrance to the house. The women started screaming ‘Peace be upon Affash’ (Affash is Saleh’s surname). Minutes later, more armed men came out of the president’s house, as well as others who came from Sakher Street, and they started pushing the girls and the women who had gathered there. They were also pointing their rifles at them, and they were threatening to shoot them if they did not leave the area immediately. Yahya, the old man who was a guard in the building, as well as some of the men from the neighborhood, intervened, and they told the Houthis that this was a shame, and that it was shameful to hit women. Three or four of the Houthis attacked Yahya, and they pushed him down to the ground. He was bleeding from a head wound, and then they took him on one of their military vehicles and took him away.”
Shadi added: “After around half an hour, around 30 women arrived, and they were carrying large sticks and electric prods. They started to attack the women who were gathered there, using the sticks and the electric prods, and three women fell to the ground, unconscious. Some of the women (from the General People’s Congress, Saleh’s party) tried to run towards the Al Rowaishan Intersection, but the Houthi women chased them down. After that, I saw the Houthi women forcing the women into large buses. They took the women who had tried to escape on a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck.”[3]
Yahya Al Wishali (50 years old), a guard in one of the nearby buildings, said: “I went out of the building to get breakfast, and I heard shots being fired. I saw three soldiers and an officer dragging 5 women in front of the entrance to the president’s house, and there was a military vehicle next to them. I went towards them and told them that what they were doing was shameful, and that it was not right to do this to women. They attacked me, and one of them hit me in the face and another pushed me to the ground. The officer pointed his rifle at my chest, and then he raised it and fired two shots in the air.”
Yahya added: “They took me, on a military vehicle, with two other individuals, one of whom had gotten stabbed. I heard that he was a tribal sheikh who was a member of the General People’s Congress. When we arrived at the Al Nasr Police Station, I saw dozens of men and women in the police station, and there were around 50 men in a small basement room that could not have been longer than 5 or 6 meters. I was detained there for five days. Afterwards, we found out that the women had been released that first night.”[4]
- In the morning of 5 and 6 September 2018, people demonstrated in Mukalla city, the capital of the Hadramaut governorate in southeastern Yemen, demanding the Hadi government decrease prices and provide basic necessities, fuel, and cooking gas at prices within reach of the average consumer.
People repeated angry slogans against the government and the Saudi/UAE-led Coalition during the protests. Some of the main roads were closed and people burned tires during the protests to express their anger at the horrible living conditions, for which they blamed the government and the Coalition. A substantial number of security forces deployed throughout the city, with forces then assaulting and firing live rounds at protestors. Two children were wounded, one severely, in addition to three men.
The security forces rounded up dozens of civilians, including five children, and detained them. Those detained were released within two days. The security forces also set up checkpoints at the entrances of the city, barring some people from entering, and detained civilians at these checkpoints, accusing them of wanting to participate in the demonstrations.
“Ishraq” (28 years old, pseudonym), who witnessed the events, said: “While the protest was passing on the main road in Mukalla at around 12 pm, the military police forces of the Elite Hadhrami Forces started attacking the protesters in a shocking manner. They started firing live rounds in the air, and after the protesters got agitated, the security forces started firing live rounds at the protesters in an indiscriminate manner. A number of civilians were injured, including children, and the protesters were dispersed. Some of them took the injured to the Basharahil Private Maternity Hospital, which only provides first aid services. After that, the injured civilians were taken to the Al Rayyan Specialty Hospital to get treatment.” Ishraq added: “At around 6 pm of that same day, the protesters restarted their demonstrations, condemning the suppression of the earlier demonstrations, but the Elite Hadhrami Forces were there in large numbers, and they started conducting large-scale detention campaigns. On the next day, gatherings were completely prohibited, and there were security forces all over the city, even in the residential neighborhoods.”[5]
- In 2018, due to the rapid devaluation of the Yemeni rial, the collapse of the economic situation and deteriorating living conditions across the country, some activists on social media accounts called for protests[6] in all cities in Yemen to condemn the currency devaluation and rising prices.
On the morning of Saturday, 6 October, the armed group Ansar Allah (Houthis) suppressed the demonstrations, attacking civilians who came out to answer the call for protests and dispersing protestors using batons and electric prods where they had gathered, including in front of Sana’a University and Tahrir Square. Ansar Allah sent out a large number of armed forces and military patrol vehicles throughout the streets of Sana’a and set up checkpoints in the city. The checkpoints were also manned by armed women.
Ansar Allah forces humiliated, insulted, beat, and detained dozens of male and female students, among other civilians. Detainees were put on trucks and taken to Al Judairi Police Station, located on the Ministry of Agriculture Street in Sana’a. They also conducted raids in the College of Business and College of Journalism, with armed men and women forcibly searching the students. That afternoon, Ansar Allah conducted a military parade inside the university, followed by a protest their supporters organized against the “war conducted by the Coalition against Yemen.”
“Zainab” (22 years old, pseudonym), an engineering student in Sana’a university, said: “I was planning to go out and protest, and have been planning to do so for more than a year. The economic conditions have gotten very difficult, and everyone is suffering. I could not buy a computer to do my schoolwork because it is too expensive, and the value of a computer is now more than 1 million Yemeni rials (around 1,700 USD). My mom is employed, but she has not gotten paid in more than two years. During these two years, she only got paid three times, and she only got half of her salary those times.” She added: “I decided to go to Sana’a University to participate in the protests. As soon as I arrived at around 9:40 am to the eastern entrance of the university (at the new university campus), I saw armed men all over the entrance. When I went in through the door, I saw a military parade with dozens of armed men inside the university, and they were carrying the signs of Ansar Allah and yelling their slogans.”[7]
Zainab told Mwatana: “I saw girls standing in small gatherings, and I walked by them and knew some of them. They were the ones who had decided to go out and protest, but, as soon as we started to organize ourselves into a protest, we were attacked by a group of Houthi women. They took me, along with three other female students, onto a Toyota van. They beat us and kicked me in the stomach. They did not stop hitting me and cursing me, saying: ‘You daughter of a dog, you illegitimate and cursed wretch.’ The bus moved after it was filled with girls, but two young men that we did not know stopped the bus before it could leave the campus, and the driver of the bus went down to fight with them. One of the girls then opened the door of the bus, and we were able to run away.”
“Mirvat” (20 years old, pseudonym), a student in Sana’a University, said: “It was around 9:45 am when I arrived at the university, and I saw women attacking some students and taking off their head scarves. I was afraid and started crying, when, suddenly, one of those women took me by the hand and told me to go with her. I asked her where we were going to, but she did not respond. She was carrying a very large stick and an electric prod. She took my phone and my bag, and she forced me into the bus. They gave my things to one of the armed men, and whenever I would ask for my things back, they would electrocute me.”[8]
She added: “We were crying on the bus, and they had even taken an old lady that had come to the university campus for a walk. They took us to the Al Judairi Police Station. There, the rooms and offices of the station were filled with dozens of girls and women. They said that they will keep us in the cells, but the cells were full. They gathered us in a large room, I think that it was a conference room. There were women that had been arrested from Tahrir Square in that room with us, and some of them had just gone out to shop. There was a girl that was carrying the things that she had bought for her wedding with her.”
[1] The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 21
[2] Law No. 29 of 2003 regarding the organization of protests and demonstrations, Part 2, Article 3
[3] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with an eyewitness, 29 March 2018
[4] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with an eyewitness, 30 March 2018
[5] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with an eyewitness, 21 December 2018
[6] Al Jazeera “A Revolution of the Hungry in Yemen Continues Against the Houthis, the Coalition, and the Government” https://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2018/10/6/%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%B6%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%88%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%83%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9
[7] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with an eyewitness, 13 October 2018
[8] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with an eyewitness, 13 October 2018