The File of Enforced Disappearance in Yemen before the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

In 1997, during the fifty-second session of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, representatives of the Yemeni government expressed their willingness and readiness to fully cooperate with this UN body. This official initiative was conveyed in a note verbale dated 16 October 1997, in which the Yemeni government extended a formal invitation to the Working Group to visit Yemen—a precedent-setting move intended to demonstrate the State’s commitment to cooperating with international human rights mechanisms.

In response to this invitation, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) dispatched an international mission to Yemen in 1998, upon the formal request of the Yemeni government. The main objective was to investigate cases of enforced disappearance, particularly those related to the events of January 1986, which took place within the context of a bloody political conflict in the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. The Working Group’s visit took place from 17 to 21 August 1998, bringing with it an initial list of 150 cases of enforced disappearance, focusing on victims of the internal split within the Yemeni Socialist Party at the time.

As a preliminary step before the UN delegation’s arrival, the Yemeni government had already referred 102 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearance to the Working Group—an indication of an official, albeit procedurally limited, willingness to cooperate.

Although the original invitation had focused on reviewing enforced disappearances that occurred during the January 1986 civil war, the Working Group, in accordance with its mandate, decided to consider any additional information or cases regardless of the time period or geographical scope, thereby expanding the investigation to include multiple cases beyond that particular conflict.

During official meetings with government officials, the Yemeni authorities informed the Working Group that the current state could not be held legally responsible for acts committed before Yemeni unification in 1990, arguing that crimes perpetrated by the government of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen did not fall under the responsibilities of the Unified-Yemen government.

All officials met by the Working Group acknowledged that enforced disappearances had occurred during and after the 1986 civil war. However, they described these cases as politically sensitive matters that had been resolved through political settlement in the context of the unification agreement. According to their statements, the negotiations that led to unification included an implicit agreement between the faction representing the Arab Republic of Yemen in the north and the faction in the south responsible for those violations, under which full amnesty was granted to all perpetrators of the 1986 violations, who were then integrated into the structure of the new state.

On 22 December 1998, the OHCHR, in cooperation with the experts of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, published a detailed report on the findings of the UN mission. The report documented cases of enforced disappearance in which victims had been arbitrarily arrested by Yemeni security forces without adherence to basic legal safeguards. It noted that the Yemeni government had acknowledged the fate of some cases, but left dozens of others unresolved, perpetuating uncertainty over the victims’ fate.

In 2005, correspondence resumed between the Yemeni government and the OHCHR, in which the Yemeni authorities were requested to provide copies of death certificates for the victims in order to close the remaining cases. However, a lack of transparency and continued ambiguity prevented a final resolution. The report stated that the Yemeni government had declared the missing persons legally dead, while also acknowledging that Yemen’s civil registry system was significantly underdeveloped compared to advanced countries, lacking clear legislation to determine the civil status of a missing person.

Under Articles (113 to 120) of Republican Decree No. 20 of 1992 on Personal Status , a court may declare a missing person dead after two years if the disappearance occurred under exceptional circumstances, or after four years if it occurred under normal conditions—provisions that allow for wide interpretive discretion regarding the legal status of the disappeared.

The Yemeni authorities further stated that prisons and detention facilities in the southern governorates had been under the control of officials of the former southern regime until the outbreak of the 1994 civil war, which ended with government forces taking control of those areas. They noted that when government forces entered those prisons, no detainees connected to the 1986 events were found, and no evidence was uncovered to determine the fate of the missing persons, claiming that investigations had yielded no concrete results.

The authorities reported that in 1995 and 1996 they discovered containers holding decomposed bodies believed to belong to individuals executed during the 1986 civil war. Witnesses from nearby areas confirmed they were aware of the existence of these containers but refrained from reporting them out of fear of retaliation.

Regarding the accountability of those responsible for the crimes committed in 1986, the government explained that most of them had gone into exile—in countries such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom—after losing the 1994 civil war, which followed their declaration of the south’s independence. It noted that some were tried in absentia on charges related to an attempted coup, but those charges did not specifically include the crimes committed in 1986.

The UN report concluded that during its visit, the Working Group obtained a clear understanding of the complex political and military context in which the cases of enforced disappearance had occurred. It explained that these cases were the result of a bloody power struggle between factions of the Yemeni Socialist Party, and that the unification of Yemen in 1990 had led to a political settlement of those disputes. Nevertheless, the Group surmised that the disappeared persons were likely executed immediately after their arrest. The UN delegation also observed a lack of societal and official interest in pursuing the matter or demanding broader investigations.

The Group expressed deep concern over the Yemeni government’s failure to conduct adequate legal investigations and its failure to provide individual responses to the cases referred to it, instead offering only general explanations of the political context surrounding the enforced disappearances. No efforts were made to locate mass graves or conduct forensic examinations to determine the identities of the discovered bodies, leaving the matter unresolved.

The delegation also voiced fears over the persistence of a culture of impunity, particularly with regard to security forces, and the existence of secret detention facilities where individuals are held in complete isolation for extended periods without judicial or legal oversight.

On 21 February 2005, Minister of Human Rights Amat Al Alim Alsoswa sent an official letter to Minister of Defense Major General Abdullah Ali Aliwah, requesting copies of the death certificates of the forcibly disappeared, after the Ministry of Defense confirmed that some of them were still receiving salaries and pensions—raising legal questions about their civil status.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Yemeni government to respond to 94 cases out of the 150 cases listed in the initial roster, after only 56 cases had been closed. In response, the Ministry of Human Rights formed a national investigative team, which conducted multiple field visits and met with a number of victims’ families, who rejected any settlements that did not reveal the fate of their loved ones.

Mohammed Ahmed Saeed Al-Tawil, head of the national team, stated that more than 80% of the cases were linked to the events of 1986, amounting to 138 cases in the south and 12 in the north. The investigations also uncovered cases not included in the OHCHR’s list, including victims of the Nasserist October 1978 movement and victims of the 1994 war, confirming that the actual number of enforced disappearance cases exceeds the documented figures.

Separately, the National Supreme Committee for Human Rights was established in 1998 and opened channels of communication with the families of the disappeared, but it did not complete its mandate as required. A high-level government team was also formed in 2001, which visited families of the forcibly disappeared, and coordination between the Committee and the Ministry continued until 2006, during which the UN Working Group was provided with information on 57 cases in 2002, nine additional cases in 2004, and later on 88 out of 90 cases, with 12 cases remaining under investigation.

In 2007, during the discussion of Yemen’s periodic report before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, the government announced that persons forcibly disappeared under mysterious circumstances were considered martyrs after an extended absence, and that their families had been financially compensated, while the Ministry of Human Rights continued to receive reports.

Overall, the crime of enforced disappearance in Yemen prior to 2011 represents one of the most complex human rights files and reflects the bloody political conflicts the country has witnessed. Thousands of Yemenis disappeared under mysterious circumstances as part of political purges and the consolidation of dominance, and many Yemeni families are still awaiting truth and justice in a case that remains unresolved despite the passing of decades since its inception.