UN Human Rights Committee considers progress

Yemen’s fourth report to the United Nations, detailing how the government is implementing the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights in the country, is currently being considered by the UN’s Human Rights Committee. Introducing the report, Director General of External Relations and International Criminal Police, Abdulkader Kahtan, said the country had adopted “new political, social, economic and cultural principles” in defense of human rights since the unification of the country and adoption of democracy in 1990. In its fourth periodic report to the Human Rights Committee, the first since 2002, Kahtan said the government had made “considerable strides” in meeting human rights obligations under international covenants and agreements, and had assured “a large measure of congruence between Yemen’s national legislation and the contents of those instruments.” The government was also “spreading a culture of human rights, and ensuring the participation of all sectors of life in all activities and national plans and programmes,” he said, according to a press briefing from the UN. Yemen is among 154 states parties to the covenant and one of 104 parties to the additional optional protocol to the covenant. As the committee considered the report in a preliminary session earlier this month, chairperson Christine Chanet said there seemed to have been limited progress since Yemen’s last report, especially in relation to the nature of domestic law and religion. The practice of polygamy and the incidence of ‘honour crimes’ were in violation of the Covenant, she said, and Yemen could not continue to affirm that Islamic law and religion took priority over it. Committee members also asked questions about the prohibition of gender-based discrimination under law; the low participation of women in political life; the practice of female genital mutilation, especially in the case of young girls; and the independence of the judiciary. Kahtan said that “Yemen continued, despite limited funds and capacities, to strive to work towards the level of its ambitions, and this was why it continued to spread the culture of human rights and to raise citizens’ awareness regarding their rights”. Yemen was determined to see that all its citizens were equal and had their rights defended and guaranteed, he added. The Human Rights Committee is currently finalising its formal observations and recommendations on Yemen’s country report, which are due by the end of the month, according to the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland.