Amnesty International, Yemen: Cracking down under pressure
25 August 2010. available at UNHCR RefWorld
Yemeni authorities are abandoning human rights in the name of security. Internationally, tough action is being demanded from the government to combat al-Qa’ida supporters based in Yemen. Inside Yemen, the state is being challenged by growing calls for secession in the south and an intermittent conflict with a rebel movement (known as the Huthis) in the north whose latest round last year forcibly displaced over a quarter of a million people. In late 2009 Yemen’s powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia deployed its armed forces against the Huthis when the conflict spilled across its borders. Neither internal nor external pressures, however, can justify or excuse the human rights violations for which the Yemeni government is responsible.
Yemen also faces a dire economic situation.2 Around a third of its 24 million people suffer chronic hunger 3 and nearly half live on less than US$2 a day.4 Some 43 per cent of children aged under five are undernourished,5 reflected by the ubiquitous street children begging or selling their cheap wares, and young people suffer extremely high levels of unemployment. Millions of Yemenis are still suffering the consequences of their government voting against the UN Security Council’s resolution to use force after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq,6 which led to most international aid being cut and hundreds of thousands of Yemeni workers being expelled from Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia. All these factors have left Yemen ranked 140 out of the 182 countries listed on the human development index, a comparative measure of life expectancy, education and standard of living.7 With the country’s few natural resources, including oil and water, fast running out, prospects for growth and future development look bleak.
