Yemen remains one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More than 18.2 million people need humanitarian assistance. Warring parties, especially the Houthis, have perpetrated new waves of violations, including arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing dozens of staff of United Nations agencies and civil society organizations since May 31. The Houthis also began attacking ships in the Red Sea in November 2023 and firing rockets toward and into Israel, amounting to possible war crimes. Israel has also responded to the Houthis’ attacks on Israel with two major attacks on Hodeidah port, a major entry point for humanitarian aid—attacks that also may amount to war crimes.
Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Enforced Disappearance
All parties to the conflict, including Houthi forces, the Yemeni government, and United Arab Emirated (UAE)-backed forces, such as the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Joint Forces, have arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and ill-treated detainees across Yemen. Hundreds of Yemenis have been detained at official and unofficial detention centers across the country.
Since May 31, the Houthis have arrested and forcibly disappeared dozens of people, including at least 17 staff of UN agencies and many employees of nongovernmental organizations, foreign embassies, and private companies operating in Houthi-controlled territories. The majority of those who were arrested still have not had any contact with their families, nor have they been given access to a lawyer.
Many other people have been arbitrarily detained by Houthis due to their activism or work, or on fabricated charges, and after unfair trials, including 32 men on dubious charges of sodomy.
UAE-backed forces, in particular the STC, continued to arbitrarily arrest and forcibly disappear individuals, including journalists and human rights defenders.
Blocking and Impeding Humanitarian Access
Warring parties, particularly the Houthis, continued to obstruct humanitarian aid in 2024. The Houthis’ obstructions of humanitarian operations and blackouts of information within their territories have exacerbated the cholera outbreak that spread across the country and claimed 258 deaths among 95,000 suspected cholera cases. Human Rights Watch has documented many cases of aid interference and obstruction by Houthi forces, including lengthy delays for approval of aid projects, blocking aid assessments to identify people’s needs, and attempts to control aid monitoring and recipient lists to divert aid to those loyal to the authorities.
On July 17, the Houthi Supreme Council for Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (SCMCHA) sent a letter to international organizations operating in Yemen, requiring them to share their staff structure and instructing them to get the SCMCHA’s pre-approval before hiring any local or international staff.
The Yemeni government has impeded the provision of much needed aid through the imposition of complex bureaucratic requirements on aid agencies that have impacted millions of civilians’ ability to access aid.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
The Yemeni government, the STC, and the Houthis have continued to crack down on women’s rights across the country. Houthis have increasingly restricted women’s freedom of movement and imposed a strict policy requiring women to travel with a male relative (mahram) or to provide written approval from their male guardian allowing them to travel, a policy that had not existed before. In the south, even though there is no official guidance banning women from traveling alone between governorates, women have reported being stopped at Yemeni government and STC’s checkpoints for several hours, and sometimes forced to turn around.
On May 26, STC forces seized the offices and the shelter of the Yemen Women’s Union in Aden—which is one of the few safe spaces that women fleeing domestic and gender-based violence can rely on—putting the health and safety of women and children at a higher risk.
UN human rights experts have detailed the Houthis’ “systematic violations of women’s and girls’ rights,” including their rights to freedom of movement, freedom of expression, health, and work, as well as widespread discrimination. Amnesty International also reported that prison authorities across Yemen are arbitrarily detaining women who have completed their jail sentences. Women are only allowed to leave prison with a male guardian to accompany them upon release, otherwise they are kept in jail or released to women’s shelters.
Red Sea Attacks, Israeli Strikes on Hodeidah
On November 19, 2023, the Houthis seized the Galaxy Leader, a British-owned and Japanese-operated vehicles carrier, and arbitrarily detained its 25-person crew. The Houthis have attacked several commercial ships since November and stated that they would continue such attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians as long as Israel continued to commit crimes against them. In addition to targeting ships in the Red Sea, they have been targeting Israel’s territories with drones and missiles. On July 19, a Houthi drone struck Tel Aviv and killed one civilian in an apartment building, which may amount to a war crime if done deliberately or indiscriminately. In response, Israel carried out airstrikes targeting Hodeidah port and a powerplant in northwest Yemen, first on July 20, killing at least six civilians and reportedly injuring at least 80 others, and second on September 29, killing at least four people and wounding 29 others. About 70 percent of Yemen's commercial imports and 80 percent of humanitarian assistance passes through Hodeidah port. The attacks appeared to cause disproportionate harm to civilians and civilian objects. Serious violations of the laws of war committed willfully are war crimes.
The United States and the United Kingdom, along with a coalition of countries, have responded to the Red Sea attacks as well with strikes on Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen, some of which have reportedly caused civilian casualties.
Harms Against Children in Armed Conflict
9.8 million children in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance. Parties to the conflict have attacked hospitals and schools, causing disruptions to health services and children’s education. Warring parties’ attacks on water and food infrastructure, and their weaponization of water, have had particularly harmful impacts on children. Many children have had to drop out of school to make time to travel and queue to bring water to their families.
The Houthis and the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition have committed serious violations against children throughout the war. Indiscriminate attacks have destroyed schools and hospitals and killed or injured thousands of children. Warring parties, including the Houthis and government forces, have recruited and deployed over 4,000 children in combat, according to the UN. The Houthis have also recruited children into their armed forces under the pretext of defending Palestine.
Landmines and Unexploded Ordinance
Landmines and explosive remnants of war continue to be a major cause of civilian casualties and continue to cause displacement. In the village of al-Shaqb, on the frontlines of the conflict in Taizz, many civilians have been injured and killed from the Houthis’ placement of landmines, and nearly the entire village has suffered from an inability to access their agricultural land—in many cases their sources of livelihood—due to the presence of uncleared landmines in their village. Between August 1, 2023 and July 31, 2024, 79 mine incidents killed 49 people and injured 66 others, including children, accordingto the United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA).
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Yemen’s penal code prohibits same-sex relations. Article 264 punishes anal sex with 100 lashes and one year in prison if participants are not married. If married, the same article prescribes death by stoning. Article 268 punishes sex between women with up to three years in prison. In January, a Houthis’ court sentenced 32 men, nine of them to death in unfair mass trial based on dubious charges of sodomy, and the others to different sentences such as crucifixion and stoning, in addition to public flogging and imprisonment up to 10 years.
Abuses Against Migrants and Asylum Seekers
Yemen continues to be a transit country for migrants coming mostly from the Horn of Africa, trying to access Gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia. The International Organization for Migrants (IOM) estimated that 308,000 migrants would need humanitarian assistance, protection, and other services in 2024. In August 2023, Human Rights Watch reported on the mass killing of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi Border Guard forces at the Yemen-Saudi border. The report found that Saudi border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. If committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants, these killings, which appear to have continued, would be a crime against humanity.
Since the armed conflict began in Yemen in 2014, both the government and the Houthi armed group have detained migrants in poor conditions and exposed them to abuse.
Lack of Accountability
There has been virtually no accountability for violations committed by parties to the conflict. Since the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) narrowly voted to end the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen in October 2021, there has been no independent international mechanism to monitor the human rights situation in Yemen and lay the foundation for accountability for abuses. The Item 10 Resolution on Yemen at the HRC has failed to include any monitoring and reporting mandate, making it a very weak response to the ongoing violations in the country.
Mwatana for Human Rights and Yale Law School’s Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic found that the warring parties have failed to effectively provide reparations. Thus far, negotiations between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia have not included discussions of accountability.