A Yemeni government body, the National Committee for Prisoners and Abductees, has urged the UN sanctions committee to include Houthi leaders involved in the recent campaign of arrests targeting employees of international and local organizations and their enforced disappearances on the sanctions list.
In a press statement, the committee stated, “We call upon the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee (Committee 2140) to list all Houthi elements who have violated international humanitarian law and international human rights law through crimes of abduction, enforced disappearance, hindering humanitarian work, and undermining security and stability in Yemen.”
The statement added that the Houthi group kidnapped dozens of employees from the United Nations, international organizations, and local NGOs “in brutal ways contrary to Yemeni customs and traditions, where their armed elements raided the homes and offices of the abductees, looted their personal and office belongings, without disclosing their detention locations or allowing them to communicate with their families.”
While condemning the ongoing enforced disappearances of international and local organization staff in Yemen by the Houthi group, the committee warned of the repercussions of these violations on humanitarian work and human rights. It highlighted the danger of obstructing and hindering humanitarian operations amidst the difficult conditions faced by the Yemeni people, especially children, deprived of food and medicine, constituting a crime against humanity under international humanitarian law and the statutes of the International Criminal Court.
The statement emphasized that the Houthis systematically and extensively practice violence and enforced disappearance to control local civil society resources, extort the international community for economic gains, and threaten international navigation.
The committee called for the formation of an international civil alliance to counter these violations through monitoring, documenting, organizing protection programs, and advocating for victims, their families, and targeted organizations. It stressed the necessity for local and international human rights organizations and media to show solidarity, demand freedom for all abducted and forcibly disappeared individuals.
Earlier this June, the Houthi group carried out a widespread abduction campaign that included dozens of employees, including women, from the United Nations, its agencies, the office of the Special Envoy, as well as international NGOs and leaders of some local civil society organizations.
