Middle East governments repressed efforts to promote human rights and backed away from bold reforms despite growing human rights challenges and promises to take action.

Governments participating in a high-level meeting on Yemen in London on January 27, 2010, should press the Yemeni authorities to  address the country's serious human rights problems.

Allegations that the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda was behind the attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day 2009 have dramatically increased international attention to the threat of terrorism emanating from Yemen.

The news that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly trained to blow up a US airliner at al Qaeda camps in Yemen has drawn sudden attention to a country that is not well known in Washington. The prospect of deeper US involvement in an Arab nation already warring with domestic rebel groups should raise a number of red flags.

The Yemeni government should stop systematically arresting Ethiopian asylum seekers and forcibly returning them to Ethiopia. The United Nations refugee agency should do more to press the Yemeni government to meet its obligations toward all asylum seekers and refugees.

Yemeni authorities should stop using unjustified lethal force against protesters and end attacks on the media in southern Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Huthi rebel forces involved in the armed conflict in northern Yemen should take all necessary measures to spare civilians from the fighting and ensure that they receive humanitarian assistance.