Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

United States

The U.S. reportedly trained Yemeni special forces in small-unit combat and counter-terrorism skills over the past year. The administration's budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2001 included $4 million in economic support funds and $1.6 million for training a small number of officers in the U.S. as well as for demining and counter-narcotics programs.

President Salih visited the United States in April and August. On the occasion of his meeting with President Clinton in Washington in April, the U.S. commended Yemen "for its democratic achievements, including guaranteeing through its constitution women's right to full political and economic participation." The United States also publicly welcomed the degree of religious tolerance in Yemen, and "the right accorded to Yemeni Jewish communities....including those in Israel, to visit Yemen." Yemen was among more than one hundred countries invited to the U.S.-supported Towards a Community of Democracies ministerial conference in Warsaw on June 25-26.

The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999 assessed the government's human rights record as "poor," citing the PSO's "broad discretion over perceived national security issues," prolonged pretrial detention, and restrictions on freedom of expression as among the most serious problems.