Amnesty calls for an end to the ‘guardian’ requirement to release women who have already served their sentences in Yemen

The NGO calls it “unacceptable” that internationally recognized authorities and Houthis “treat women as incomplete people”

25 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The non-governmental organization Amnesty International has demanded this Wednesday that the internationally recognized Yemeni authorities and the Houthis release all the prisoners who have served their sentences and are still in jail due to the absence of a “guardian” to take charge of them. they.

Yemeni prison authorities are holding women in various parts of the country despite having completed their sentences because there is no man who approves their release or if their relatives refuse to take them in, a practice in the country since before the conflict broke out in 2015.

“It is unacceptable that the Yemeni authorities continue to consider and treat women as incomplete people, incapable of action, who need a male guardian to develop their daily lives,” denounced the deputy director of the NGO for the Near and North East. from Africa, Grazis Careccia.

“Traditional customs must evolve, as every society does, to guarantee respect for Human Rights and dignity”, he stated, before demanding that these women “be released immediately”.

Thus, he has emphasized that the prison authorities must act in line with the Yemeni Penal Code, the country’s Constitution and the obligations under Humanitarian Law. “We must put an end to unjustifiable deprivation of liberty and all forms of discrimination based on gender,” she stressed.

A former worker at the central prison in the capital, Sana’a, which is controlled by the Houthis, has denounced that this requirement violates women’s rights and has confirmed that the rebels “claim that it is impossible to leave without a male guardian.”

“A woman has been arbitrarily deprived of liberty for five years after having served her sentence, another was held in prison for two months until her son arrived from abroad to take charge of her release. In 2019 a woman was handed over to her father, who murdered barely a week later,” he denounced.

Along these lines, two lawyers contacted by the NGO have stressed that the practice lacks a legal basis and that it continues to be rooted in social norms. “We need community pressure from organizations and activists to end this practice,” said one of them.

TRANSFERS TO SHELTERS

For her part, a woman identified with the alias ‘Radiya’ has reported that she was imprisoned “for being a victim of rape.” The woman served her sentence in Taiz in 2022 but, because her husband had divorced her and her family disowned her, she was transferred to a local women’s shelter.

The woman was raped by a neighbor in 2021, which led to an accusation of adultery that resulted in a one-year prison sentence. Amnesty International has recalled that treating adultery as a crime constitutes a violation of women’s right to privacy, in addition to violating the prohibition of discrimination in the family established in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

“I feel oppressed and deeply sad. I lost my children and my husband, and my family abandoned me. I am depressed. I had nowhere to go except the shelter. I hope I can build a new life and find a job when I leave the shelter,” she said. the woman.

For her part, the director of this shelter has specified in statements to the NGO that the shelter was opened in 2020. “We managed to transfer all the women who had already served their sentences to it; the prosecutor’s office facilitated the process. At that time they were 23 women”, he highlighted.

“We must support these women and offer them rehabilitation so that they can reintegrate into society. The reason is that women who have been in prison are rejected,” he said. In these shelters the women follow a rehabilitation program that helps them acquire professional skills or strengthen them.

These shelters coordinate with the prison administration and the public prosecutor’s office to ensure that women are transferred to them, and once a woman is ready to leave the hostel for good, the prison authorities need to be notified, even though there is no basis legal that prevents his departure.

“Masculine guardianship is an instrument of social control over the life and freedoms of women, which should not be legitimized with this type of practice. The authorities must work to eliminate discrimination against women and end male guardianship both in the legislation as well as practice, even if to do so requires challenging existing social norms,” ​​said Careccia. “Shelters must be opened for women at risk, but also guarantee that no woman is forced to reside in them without her consent,” she stressed.