Yemeni human rights organizations have called on the parties to the war in Yemen to adhere to international law, be forced to the reparation of the Yemeni victims of violations, and provide adequately compensate them for the damages and losses and the harms that cannot be repaired.
Further, the human rights organizations suggested that compensation can be financial reimbursement, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and non -repetition guarantees, as full, sufficient and effective compensation requires a mixture of multiple forms. Additionally, the reparation should be presented quickly and proportional to the gravity of violations and harm to the victims. In Yemen, none of the warring parties did provide any real compensation for civilian victims as a result of the damage they suffered.
According to Mwatana organization for human rights, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia/the United Arab Emirates, the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis), and the other warring parties claimed the lives of thousands of civilians in Yemen, dispersed families, ruined buildings, destroyed agricultural lands, and demolished the future of Millions of Yemenis throughout the country while the warring parties continue to practice these violations.
"Mwatana" confirmed in a recent joint report with the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale University Law Faculty, reviewed by "Khuyut", which is the first detailed study of international legal obligations for member states of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the Ansar Allah (Houthis) armed group; the report emphasized on the provision of reparation for the international mistakes they are accounted for in Yemen; " Throughout the nearly decade-long, ongoing armed conflict in Yemen, the warring parties in Yemen have caused the loss of lives, destroyed families, destroyed cities and lands, and destroyed the future of millions."
Also, the call to reparative justice is an invitation to achieve justice for millions of lives of civilians that have been lost, destroyed, and robbed during the ongoing conflict. The costs of war should not fall on those who do not participate in hostilities.
Since the start of the conflict, the warring parties have committed frequent, frequent and grave violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, in ways that harmed civilians in Yemen.
The Yemenis have a legal and moral right to the reparation of the damages they suffered by those who have caused these damages, while the warring parties in Yemen bear the human rights organization, a legal and moral responsibility to provide reparation, as no party has yet fulfilled its responsibility.
A call for reparative justice
The war affected all aspects of daily life in Yemen. The warring parties killed civilians who were at weddings, others who were in condolences, fishermen working on their boats at sea, and safe families in their homes. The warring parties also caused severe damage to the basic general infrastructure, including markets, schools, farms and hospitals. According to various estimates, the conflict in Yemen killed more than 230,000 people, displaced at least 4 million others, and reflected the course of at least two decades of human development. The vast majority of the country's population is currently in need of a form of humanitarian assistance.
Mwatana Human Rights Organization, as stated in the report, says it has interviewed dozens of civilians who lost their relatives, wounded, damaged, or destroyed their property in 20 different air attacks. In that four air attacks, the internationally recognized coalition and government said that condolence payments were offered to the families of their victims, and by 2021, the amounts were recently paid to some civilian victims who were damaged in the six air attacks as chosen by the Joint Committee.
Unfortunately, even where warring parties made efforts to respond to civilian harm, these responses were grossly inadequate, the report finds. The Saudi/UAE-led Coalition and Internationally Recognized Government of Yemen have made condolence payments to only a tiny fraction of civilian victims of Coalition airstrikes. These condolence payments were framed as “voluntary” and “humanitarian.” They came without an apology. The payment process—which followed investigations that were not independent, impartial or credible—was non-transparent, ineffective, and far from thorough, the report shows. Some civilians had to sign a receipt that said they had received payment for a Coalition “mistake.”
And it seems that in most cases there are some figures who control over the payment process, and in a few cases, it seemed that civilians who have more influential connections are more likely to receive financial sums.
However, no form of assistance - financial or non -financial - has been provided to the vast majority of civilian victims for Coalition attacks in Yemen. Only a small part of the civilian victims of the air attacks received condolence payments, and civilian victims for other types of illegal behavior committed by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and their forces - for example: violations related to arrests - to a big extent were completely ignored.
While the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis) did not conduct real investigations through the fair bodies that it has formed, as the vast majority of civilian victims of the group's practices, including - for example - those who were distorted due to the explosions of landmines or who lost their relatives in attacks of random shelling, they have been greatly ignored. Among them 11 victims, "Mwatana" said that it has conducted specialized interviews with victims during the year 2021, affected by the explosion of mines that Ansar Allah (the Houthis) or ground attacks launched, as all of them did not receive any reparation justice, while the Ansar Allah group (The Houthis) claimed that the coalition is obligated to provide reparation for the damage in Yemen, but it has not yet recognized its own responsibilities in the reparation of the widespread damage it caused to civilians.
Insufficient mechanisms
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Yemen, the warring parties have committed frequent, repeated and grave violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, in ways that harmed civilians in Yemen. Random and non -proportional attacks led to the killing and wounding of civilians, and the destruction of civilian homes, vehicles and other properties. The warring parties also committed killings outside the scope of the judiciary and forced disappearance, and used torture and other forms of harsh, inhuman, degrading treatment, sexual violence and gender -based violence. Wide -scale weapons, such as landmines and cluster ammunition, have been used, which distorted civilians, including many children, and made access to agricultural lands impossible. Additionally, it recruited and used children in fighting, hindered and restricted the arrival of humanitarian aid, and used starvation as a war method, and the list goes on.
The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights is calling on the UN Security Council to establish an international committee to reparate the damage in Yemen designed to ensure the reparation of civilian victims from the grave violations of international humanitarian law and the grave violations of the law to refer the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court
Mwatana documented and validated the killing of 5,409 civilians and the injury of 8,263 civilians in the attacks of the warring parties. These attacks were often carried out by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, or the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis), the Southern Transitional Council or the joint forces supported by the United Arab Emirates or the internationally recognized Yemeni government. During the same period, Mwatana has documented that 3,277 people have been subjected to various forms of arrest -related violations, including cases of enforced disappearance and torture. Most of these documented violations related to arrest were committed by Ansar Allah (the Houthis), the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the Southern Transitional Council, backed by the United Arab Emirates.
The numbers mentioned by Mwatana organization are much less than the number of direct civilian victims of the attacks of the warring parties and violations in Yemen. With regard to the statistics, Mwatana has included in its statistics only the cases documented by the organization directly. Given the number of victims and damage, Mwatana says it was unable to investigate all cases of civil damage. The presented numbers do not represent the outcome of the actual losses resulting from the conflict.
Also, the mechanisms related to reparative justice, which have been developed so far by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the armed Ansar Allah group (the Houthis), are not sufficient at all to accomplish the task of ensuring a rapid, sufficient and effective reparation to civilian victims, especially in light of the gravity of the violations committed by these warring parties and the size of the resulting civil damage. All existing mechanisms do not work effectively and transparently. All of them lack - to a great extent - to credibility. None of them made effective investigations into the alleged violations, nor did they provide adequate, immediate or effective compensation for civilian victims.
The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights is calling on the UN Security Council to establish an international committee to reparate the damage in Yemen designed to ensure the reparation of civilian victims from the grave violations of international humanitarian law and the grave violations of the law to refer the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court.
Moreover, it called to conduct independent, neutral, complete, rapid and effective investigations, international standards and provide support for them, in all violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in Yemen.
In addition to the inclusion of the language of accountability in all the decisions and data of the United Nations Security Council and its relevant outputs about Yemen, it shall ensure the provision of a full reparation to civilian victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law and the grave violations of international human rights law to which the warrying parties are accountable.
