HRW demands that the truce in Yemen include civil society because they have been excluded

The NGO denounces that the “true beneficiaries of this truce should be Yemeni civilians”

21 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed this Thursday that the negotiations for a new truce in Yemen have to include civil society, while they have urged the implementation of accountability mechanisms to protect the rights of Yemenis.

“The true beneficiaries of this truce should be Yemeni civilians, rather than the leaders of the parties to the conflict,” said Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s researcher for Yemen and Bahrain.

“Civil society and Yemeni activists have been truly excluded from the negotiations, leaving the people of Yemen with no one to represent their interests,” he denounced.

Thus, Jafarnia has lamented that “civil society has not been formally included in the discussions on the truce or in a meaningful way in the broader negotiations led by the UN special envoy.”

“For a new truce to uphold the rights of people in Yemen, it is essential to meaningfully include Yemeni civil society actors on key issues, including the rights of women and minority groups,” reads a statement.

HRW, which has welcomed the recent prisoner exchanges, has also called for the release of arbitrarily detained people, as well as reported the disappearance of people, including human rights activists and journalists. “A truce should ensure their release,” she said.

ACCOUNTABILITY

On the other hand, the NGO has indicated that the belligerent parties have not been held responsible for their actions during the conflict, which have caused at least 20,000 civilian casualties, while 21 million Yemenis need humanitarian aid and 4.5 million people have been displaced.

The parties to the conflict, which have damaged and destroyed the country’s critical infrastructure, have failed to provide effective reparations, so the organization has called for fair trials, reparations and reconstruction to move society forward “in a sustainable manner”.

“A new truce should address this gap by including the establishment of an international investigative mechanism, which is the first step to achieving accountability,” Jafarnia explained, adding that impunity for those who carried out must end. carried out or supervised possible war crimes.

In addition, they have indicated that in order to recover from the conflict, the parties must commit to inspecting and clearing the country of land mines and war explosives, since during the truce the explosive remains were the main cause of civilian casualties.