By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen – Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) released its 54 page report “How Come You Allow Little Girls to Get Married?: Child Marriage in Yemen” to urge Yemen to ban marriage for girls under the age of eighteen.  This age floor would improve educational opportunities for girls and protect their human rights.  Child marriage in poor Arab countries preserves females’ status as second-class citizens and jeopardizes girls’ health.

Presently, Yemen does not have a legal minimum age for marriage.  In 2009, the Yemeni government presented a bill to set seventeen as the minimum age for marriage.  Arguing the proposed law conflicted with Islamic law, a group of conservative Yemeni lawmakers stopped the bill’s passage.  Several countries who follow Islamic law have instituted the age of eighteen as the marriage age minimum.

Yemeni demonstrators called for reforms such as guaranteed gender equality in recent months.  HRW advocates the government should place banning child marriage as a reform priority.

Data from the United Nations and the Yemeni government indicate eight-year-old girls were married, and some of their husbands engaged in martial rape and domestic abuse.  Often, these child brides forcibly marry much older men.  Last year, a nine-year-old wife published her account of marrying a man three times her age.  A thirteen-year-old also died after having sex with her husband twice her age that caused internal bleeding.  Boys are rarely subjected to child marriages.

Nadya Khalife, HRW’s women’s rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa and the report’s author, stated “Girls should not be forced to be wives and mothers…The government…needs to show that it has the political will to do this by adopting this law.”

The girls’ families force them to marry.  These new brides do not control their lives or childbearing decisions.

While fifty-two percent of girls are married before the age of eighteen, about fourteen percent of Yemeni girls wed before the age of fifteen.  Once these future child brides reach puberty, they usually do not attend school.  The young child bearing age associated with early marriage results in lasting reproductive health issues.

One of the thirty girls interviewed testified, “I reached sixth grade, and left school to get married.  Now, when I see my daughter, I say to myself, ‘Who’s going to teach her?’  Because I can’t.  I understood [the value of education] when I got older.”  Another girl said, “My father insisted that I get married.  I wanted to go to college, to become a lawyer, but there’s no chance now because I’m going to have a baby.”

For further information, please see:

CBC News – Yemen Child Marriages Targeted By Rights Groups – 8 Dec 2011

Human Rights Watch – Yemen: Child Marriage Spurs Abuse of Girls and Women – 8 Dec 2011

Reuters – Rights Group Urges Yemen To Ban Child Marriage – 8 Dec 2011

Taiwan News – Rights Group Urges Yemen To Ban Child Marriage – 8 Dec 2011

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A proposed Saudi Arabian law would allow the kingdom to detain security suspects indefinitely and without trial.   It indicates that peaceful acts of dissent could in the future be prosecuted as a “terrorist crime.”

A copy of the law leaked to Amnesty International earlier this year.

Amnesty included commentary on the proposed law in a report released on Thursday about the state of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, in which it called the situation “dire.”

It criticized the Saudi “vague and broad” definitions of terrorism, which range from “destabilizing society” to “harming the reputation of the state.”

“The formulation of a new anti-terror law is another apparent sign of the authorities to use the law to silence dissent,” Amnesty International said.

“This opaqueness could be exploited to charge peaceful meetings of a group of people who make political demands or even engage in academic discussions with a ‘terrorist crime’ under this draft law.”

Saudi Arabia has thus far avoided the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring that have consumed much of the region, but it appears they are proactively attempting to repress any future opposition.

Amnesty has called on the Saudi government to release all prisoners of conscience, denouncing the “extremely weak” protection of human rights in Saudi Arabia. It says hundreds of people have been arrested in the east, many without charge or trial.

Detained prisoners are often held for months without trial or access to a lawyer.  Confessions are extracted under duress, including beatings with sticks, punching, suspension from the ceiling by the ankles or wrists, and sleep deprivation.

When cases are brought to trial, the proceedings are often held behind closed doors, and fail to live up to the international standards for judicial fairness and transparency.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that doesn’t have a written criminal code.  Their law is instead based upon an uncodified version of Islamic Shari’a law as interpreted by judges.

The Saudi embassy in London claims that the report is based upon “inaccurate information” taken from a law that has been circulating for years and that is still subject to changes.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is committed to and respects human rights in accordance with Islamic sharia, which is the foundation of our legal system,” Saudi Ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud said in a statement.

The embassy says that all those detained were endangering the lives of others.  Most of them were released without charge after questioning. It denied any human rights violations against the detainees.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Draft Saudi security law faces criticism — 01 Dec. 2011

BBC — Saudi Arabia rejects Amnesty repression claims — 01 Dec. 2011

MSNBC — Report: Saudi draft terror law legalizes repression — 01 Dec. 2011

Voice of America — Report Charges Saudis with “New Wave of Repression” — 01 Dec. 2011

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has declared general amnesty for people who committed abuses during the uprising and political crisis that began in Yemen 10 months ago.

Last week, Saleh ceded power to the vice president, however, as his opponents point out, he has yet to step down or stop making decisions.  This has led to some confusion as to what his new role is now that he has supposedly stepped down as president.

Saleh’s opponents have called on him to stop making decisions that affect the country.

The amnesty of those who “committed errors during the crisis” does not extend to the parties responsible for injuring Saleh in a bombing at the presidential palace in June.

Saleh did not give extensive details about his offer of amnesty, but many think that it is meant to pardon his own forces that are accused of killing protesters during the many months of bloody unrest.

Yemeni lawmakers have already agreed to grant Saleh and other government officials immunity from prosecution as part of the power sharing arrangement that led to Saleh’s ceding of power.

There is a presidential election scheduled for 21 February, but currently Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi is the only candidate.   This is the result of of a deal between the ruling party and the opposition.

Despite political progress, Yemen’s armed conflicts are ongoing.  Fighting in the northern Saada Province between Houthi rebels and the government was renewed on Sunday resulting in at least 25 dead.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Friday which noted that Yemeni troops have killed at least 35 civilians in the city of Taiz since 21 October, when the United Nations Security Council issued a statement calling on Saleh to end human rights violations in Yemen.

The Yemeni opposition has demanded that the United Nations Security Council adopt recommendations contained in the HRW report.  The recommendations include an asset freeze and travel ban on President Saleh and other civilian officials.  They also ask the Security Council to disassociate itself from the agreement that offers Saleh immunity for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in exchange for leaving office.

“The army’s indiscriminate shelling in Taizz shows President Saleh’s brazen disregard for the lives of Yemeni civilians right up to the time he signed a deal to transfer power,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Because President Saleh’s signature is only as good as the actions that follow, concerned governments and the UN Security Council should still impose targeted sanctions until these unlawful attacks stop and hold Yemeni authorities accountable.”

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet early this week.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera — Yemen’s Saleh decrees ‘general amnesty’ — 27 Nov. 2011

Al Sahwah — Yemeni protesters demands Security Council to adopt HRW’s Recommendations — 27 Nov. 2011

New York Times — Power Ceded, Yet President of Yemen Declares Amnesty — 27 Nov. 2011

Ocala — New Turmoil as President Comes Back to Yemen — 27 Nov. 2011

Amnesty — Yemen: immunity deal would be ‘hammer blow’ to human rights victims — 24 Nov. 2011