Yemen: Human Rights

Publisher Marketing: Yemen is a republic with a constitution that provides for a president, a parliament, and an independent judiciary. After 33 years in power, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh formally stepped down in February 2012 when Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi, running as the sole consensus candidate, was elected president in a vote generally considered to be free and fair. During the subsequent transition process, implemented through the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered initiative, elements of the transitional National Consensus Government sought to expand political participation to formerly excluded groups, such as women, youth, and minorities. Despite progress in security sector reform, a key component of the overall transition, the transitional government did not exercise full control over the security forces due to competing family, tribal, party, and sectarian influences. Security forces, some affiliated with the former regime, operated outside the law and committed human rights abuses. The most significant human rights problems were arbitrary killings and other acts of violence committed by the government and various entities and groups, disappearances and kidnappings, and a weak and corrupt judicial system that did not ensure the rule of law. Other human rights problems included torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lengthy pretrial detentions; some infringements on citizens' privacy rights; some limits on freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement; lack of transparency and significant corruption at all levels of government; violence and discrimination against women; violence against children; reported use of child soldiers by security forces, tribal groups, and other informal militias; discrimination against persons with disabilities; discrimination based on race, gender, and ethnicity; restrictions on worker rights; forced labor, including forced child labor; other instances of child labor; and extremist threats and violence. Impunity was persistent and pervasive. The transitional government planned to undertake investigations and prosecutions of government and security officials for human rights abuses, but political pressures and limited government capacity precluded significant action. Despite government efforts to disband the former police state and reform the security services during the transition, local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and activists reported that abuses continued. Security forces essentially remained immune from civilian oversight. Nonstate actors engaged in internal armed conflict with government forces and committed significant abuses during the year. Multiple armed groups, including progovernment and opposition tribal militias, regionally and religiously oriented insurgents, and terrorist groups including al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) perpetrated numerous human rights abuses. During the year AQAP repeatedly attacked security installations and conducted frequent campaigns to kill government officials and individuals deemed to engage in "immoral" conduct.