Newsletter Issue #2

October 2020 - January 2021

Overview

Over five years of conflict have ravaged Yemen and made life unbearably difficult for millions of Yemeni women, men and children. 2020 has seen a renewed wave of military escalation and continued threat to the lives of civilians; a free-falling economy; a humanitarian funding crisis; increased levels of food insecurity; and the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

In his briefing to the Security Council, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, noted that 2020 has ended on a bleak note for Yemen with a harrowing attack on the newly-formed cabinet upon their arrival at Aden airport on December 30.

“The attack on the cabinet in Aden was devastating, not only due to the tragically heavy civilian toll, but also because it has political implications that could stir deep distrust,” Mr. Griffiths said, noting that “this horrific attack was a deliberate attempt to turn a moment of hope to one of rift and despair, and to derail efforts to achieve peace and alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people.”

Prompted by the growing fear of the impact of COVID-19 in Yemen and in line with the call by the Secretary-General for a global ceasefire, the Office of the Special Envoy had been mediating for most of 2020 to reach an agreement on a Joint Declaration that commits the parties to stop the fighting, implement humanitarian measures to alleviate suffering, and resume an inclusive peace process to comprehensively end the conflict.

“I know that the negotiations on the Joint Declaration have been cumbersome and frustrating, and that they cannot continue indefinitely. I still believe that it is right to pursue the proposals contained in the Joint Declaration,” Mr. Griffiths said, “But we need to maintain our focus and that of the parties on the primary goal of resuming an inclusive political process to comprehensively end this conflict. Peace is possible where there is the will to make it happen.”

In this issue, read:

1) Griffiths condemns the attack on the Yemeni cabinet at Aden Airport

2) Two Years After Stockholm: Implementation Update

3) Costs of War: A generation's struggle for education in Yemen

4) Featured Readings: A grueling year for Yemeni journalists

5) In Focus: Women inclusion in the peace process

6) News Clippings

Griffiths condemns the attack on the Yemeni cabinet at Aden Airport

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, strongly condemned the attack on the Yemeni cabinet upon the arrival of cabinet ministers to Aden Airport on 30 December. Dozens of civilians were killed or injured in the attack, including three humanitarian workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“It was a truly sad day for Yemen. This despicable attack horrified Yemenis not just in Aden, but across the country. A transgression of such magnitude potentially amounts to a war crime,” Mr. Griffiths said.

In a call with the Yemeni Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Bin Mubarak, on 31 December, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, reiterated his unequivocal condemnation of the cowardly attack on the Yemeni cabinet and offered his sincere condolences for all those who lost loved ones and expressed hope for a speedy recovery for all the injured.

In the days after the attack, Mr. Griffiths travelled to Riyadh to meet with the Yemeni President, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and then to Aden where he met with the Yemeni Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Governor of Aden. During the visit, Mr. Griffiths congratulated the Prime Minister on the formation of the Cabinet and its arrival in Aden and commended the resolve of Government in the aftermath of the attack. He further expressed hope the arrival of the ministers will mark the beginning of recovery after a perilous year.

“This cabinet is a signal of hope that reconciliation is possible. This horrific attack was a deliberate attempt to turn this moment of hope to one of rift and despair, and to derail efforts to achieve peace,” Mr. Griffiths said, “The United Nations remains committed to help Yemen find a way forward towards a sustainable and comprehensive end of this conflict through a negotiated, political solution.”

Two Years After Stockholm: Implementation Update

In the lead up to the Stockholm Agreement, six months of fighting in Hudaydah had displaced 700,000 people and caused high civilian casualties in the governorate.

The battle in Hudaydah had also impacted the rest of the country. About 90 per cent of Yemen’s commercial imports and 70 per cent of its humanitarian assistance transited through Hudaydah’s ports. Arterial routes vital to deliver and distribute imported goods were in a chokehold, pushing the country further towards the threat of famine and creating fuel shortages that could have brought the country to a halt.

In response, the United Nations had mediated between the parties to the conflict in Yemen an agreement which concluded in Stockholm on 13 December 2018. The Stockholm agreement has three main components:

1. An agreement on the city of Hudaydah and the ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Issa including a governorate-wide ceasefire

2. An executive mechanism to activate the agreement for the exchange of prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons, and those under house arrest;

3. A statement of understanding on Taïz stipulating the formation of a joint committee with representatives of the parties and from civil society.

The Hudaydah Ceasefire

The ceasefire came into effect five days after the conclusion of the Agreement and vastly reduced the amount of fighting in the governorate. The UN Mission to support the Hydaydah Agreement (UNMHA) was established in January of 2019 to support the parties in their implementation on the security-related elements of the Agreement including the ceasefire and the redeployment of forces.

While actual numbers may be higher, verified figures indicate that the number of civilians killed in the governorate decreased from 350 in 2018 to 50 between January and November 2020, while the total number of civilians injured reduced from 526 to 152. The ceasefire further enabled the return of thousands of displaced civilians to Hudaydah city.

Despite this, challenges persist. There have been serious breaches of the ceasefire and periodic escalations of violence that have undermined the spirit of the Agreement, while the front lines remain in place, albeit largely frozen. Joint mechanisms established within the framework of the Agreement including the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) have contributed to dialogue but have been suspended following the shooting of a Government of Yemen’s Liaison Officer in March of 2020. Limitations on access and freedom of movement have impacted Mission activities and constrained full mandate implementation while the COVID-19 pandemic has further contributed to the restriction of UNMHA operations and engagement.

Most recently, UNMHA has undertaken several initiatives to reactivate and reenergize the RCC and other joint mechanisms so as to mitigate violence in the Hudaydah governorate and pursue the full implementation of the Agreement.

The Prisoners Agreement

The Agreement commits the parties to release all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons and those under house arrest. Following the conclusion of the Agreement, both sides have been sharing lists of detainees in preparation for a phased exchange of all conflict-related detainees.

Delegates representing the parties came together on several occasions as members of the Supervisory Committee on the Implementation of the Prisoners’ Exchange Agreement, jointly chaired by the Office of the Special Envoy for Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In February 2020, the Committee agreed in Amman on the details of the first large-scale exchange operation. In September, the Committee met again in Switzerland and agreed to release a first group of over a thousand conflict-related detainees as part of the understandings reached in Amman earlier in that. In October, the parties released 1056 detainees.

In meeting with civil society actors working on the issue of detainees in Yemen last December, the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen acknowledged the vital role civil society, including women’s groups, has been playing in releasing detainees in Yemen in an often-dangerous environment, and reiterated commitment to continue working with the parties to release more prisoners and detainees.

The fifth meeting of the Supervisory Committee started on 24 January, 2021 to continue discussions to release more detainees as per the parties' commitment in the Stockholm Agreement.

"I urge the parties to prioritize in their discussions the immediate and unconditional release of all sick, wounded, elderly and children detainees as well as all arbitrarily detained civilians, including women,” Mr. Griffiths said in the opening of the meeting.

The Taiz Understanding

The Office of the Special Envoy continues to impress upon the Parties the urgent need to activate the Statement of Understanding for Taiz. Finding a jointly-agreed solution has recently become more urgent to restore peace and freedom of mobility in light of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Yemen.

A solution for Taiz is of great importance for peace in Yemen and is urgently needed to generate impetus to unlock impasses between the Parties elsewhere. The Office of the Special Envoy is working with all stakeholders, including active civil society and women groups, to support reconciliation and crossline efforts. Most recently, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, met with representatives of civil society to solicit their views on ways to overcome the deadlock on Taiz in line with the Stockholm Agreement. In the meeting, he deplored the dire humanitarian situation due to the continued closure of roads and the sustained military activity. He further condemned all violence against civilians, including children, and attacks against civilian infrastructure in the city and governorate from all warring sides.

“The human cost of the war in Taiz is unacceptable. We will continue our efforts to bring about a political solution that will eventually silence the guns and benefit all Yemenis, including the people in Taiz,” Mr. Griffiths said.

Costs of War: A generation's struggle for education in Yemen

"The issue of education is not only humanitarian, but also an illustration of the costs of the war. I was minded to say this to you through reading about one particular school in Taiz, where the children risk their lives to go to school and yet go there. They go to school where there are few, if any materials, where the teachers I’m sure have rarely been paid and yet go there. And this struggle, this struggle to continue an education for the next generation is remarkable, and we see it in every conflict, and we see it in Yemen. And it is a testament to the courage of Yemeni families and the plight of Yemeni children"

Special Envoy Martin Griffiths to the Security Council, October 2020

Source of below data is UNICEF and OCHA in Yemen. For more: https://www.unicef.org/yemen/education

Featured Readings:

A grueling year for Yemeni journalists

In 2015, the UN Security Council acknowledged in resolution 2222 that “the work of journalists, media professionals, and associated personnel often puts them at specific risk of intimidation, harassment and violence in situations of armed conflict.” The resolution further reaffirmed that “parties to an armed conflict bear the primary responsibility to take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of affected civilians, including those who exercise their right to freedom of expression by seeking, receiving and disseminating information.”

Reporters Without Borders classifies Yemen as a “high-risk” country for journalists and ranks Yemen the 167^th place out of 180 country in 2020’s World Press Freedom Index.

Since 2015, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented 357 human rights violations and abuses against journalists in Yemen. This includes 28 killings, two enforced disappearances, one abduction, 45 physical assaults, 184 arbitrary arrests and detentions, 16 death or physical violence threats against journalists, 24 seizures of media organizations, 26 closures of TV channels and newspaper companies, 27 attacks on media organizations and houses of journalists, and four death sentences imposed on journalists in Sana’a last April in violation of international human rights law.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, noted that such abuses are perpetrated by all parties to the conflict in Yemen.

“The safety of journalists is essential to the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of us all, and in the context of armed conflict they play a vital role in uncovering the truth and holding the parties to the conflict to account publicly," Ms. Bachelet added, “Attacks against them may amount to war crimes, and those responsible for such crimes must be brought to justice."

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate reported 112 violations of media freedoms and journalists’ rights in 2020 by all sides including 3 murders, 33 abductions and arrests, 8 cases of torture and 6 incidents of physical assault.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has repeatedly called for the release of arbitrarily detained journalists and condemned the targeting of media professionals. Four Yemeni journalists were included in the group of over a thousand detainees released in October 2020 following an agreement by the parties in Switzerland.

“The conflict has created an increasingly repressive environment for the media. And all parties have an obligation to protect journalists and uphold freedom of the press,” said Mr. Griffiths in his briefing to the Security Council in May 2020.

“The freedom of expression and assembly are the foundations of a healthy political life, and the most basic guarantees of equal citizenship,” Mr. Griffiths recently said, “I am extremely concerned about the shrinking space of press freedom including threats to journalists’ physical security and to their families, detention, death sentences against journalists and even worse, assassinations. I will continue to urge the parties to respect and protect press freedom.”

In Focus: Women inclusion in the peace process

The year 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda which is now comprised of ten resolutions. UNSCR 1325 served as a landmark affirming the importance of women’s meaningful participation and the inclusion and adoption of gender perspectives in all matters of peace and security. The most recent resolution, UNSCR 2493 reiterated that call for “ensuring and promoting the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all stages of peace processes, including through mainstreaming a gender perspective.”

Over the past two decades, the ten legally-binding resolutions have addressed a broad array of crucial issues, including: protection; conflict prevention; women’s participation; sexual- and gender-based violence; accountability, monitoring and reporting mechanisms; the need to support women’s and indigenous peacebuilding initiatives; financing and institutional reforms; and post-conflict recovery and reconstruction.

The UN Guidance on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies has shown that mediation approaches that include and consider the rights, needs and perspectives of women, and civil society more broadly, are more likely to prompt wider support for a negotiated settlement and contribute to sustainable peace. The United Nations globally and in Yemen specifically is fully committed to promoting women’s representation, meaningful participation and the integration of gender perspectives in its peace efforts.

In 2020, Yemen was ranked at the bottom of the Gender Gap Index (153^rd out of 153 countries) and was listed 151^st (out of 153 countries) in terms of women’s political empowerment. Yemeni women are severely under-represented in senior decision-making positions and roles. Before the eruption of the conflict, Yemeni representatives at the historic National Dialogue Conference (NDC), agreed to mandate a minimum of 30 per cent representation of women in future governing bodies. However, women’s political representation in Yemen continues to face opposition, including in processes related to peace and security.

The conflict, coupled with the pandemic of COVID19, has added layers of vulnerability for Yemeni women and girls and exacerbated existing gender inequalities. Yet, women and civil society organizations continue to participate in and often lead peacemaking initiatives, including advocating and mediating between warring parties for the opening of roads and the release of detainees. Most recently, these efforts have included mobilizing support for an immediate and inclusive ceasefire process and the resumption of comprehensive peace talks.

The Office of the Special Envoy for Yemen has been promoting women’s representation and meaningful participation in the multi-track peace process with the parties and with Track 2 organizations. In advance of the 2018 Stockholm consultations, the Special Envoy offered the parties additional seats reserved for women to ensure Yemeni women were represented. However, the offer was declined. The Special Envoy also committed to reserved seats for women in future political talks.

To ensure that the particular needs, concerns and perspectives of Yemeni women inform the peace process, the Office of the Special Envoy holds regular virtual and in-person consultations, workshops and meetings with a diverse array of Yemeni women advocates and groups, as well as consulting on these priorities with the Yemeni women’s Technical Advisory Group.

Read on UN News: "The decision to designate the Houthis (Ansar Allah) a foreign terrorist organization, and how it’s impacting the United Nations."

News Clippings

Patients return to Yemen after receiving medical treatment in Jordan

4 October - "We are grateful to everyone who collaborated in making this medical air bridge happen. However, opening the Sana'a airport is one of the sustainable ways for Yemenis to receive life-saving medical treatment abroad", said the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths.

Read full story here.

The Secretary-General calls for immediate action to prevent famine in Yemen

20 November - "Yemen is now in imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades. In the absence of immediate action, millions of lives may be lost," said António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Read full story here.

UNMHA expresses deep concern over recent military escalation in Al Hudaydah

18 January - "The safety and security of the civilian population remains of paramount importance and is the essential reason behind the ceasefire agreement. we will be doing everything possible to remind both parties of their obligations under the Hudaydah Agreement and International Humanitarian Law. I urge them to stop this escalation before it causes any further harm to civilians," said Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha, UNMHA’s Head of Mission and Chair.

Read the full story here.

Fifth meeting to implement the Prisoners Exchange Agreement begins in Amman

24 January - “I urge the parties to prioritize in their discussions the immediate and unconditional release of all sick, wounded, elderly and children detainees as well as all arbitrarily detained civilians, including women,” Mr. Griffiths said in his opening remarks.

Read full story here.

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