Talk:Human rights in Yemen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Human rights

I removed the following:

• Shia's are especially subject to abuse by the Sunni dominated government of Yemen.

First of all, they are not just shia's, they are Zaydi shia's, and that's a big difference. They are more nearer to sunni teachings than shia teachings found in Iraq or Iran. And the yemen government is not dominated by sunni's, at least provide a reliable source, i.e. not a freelance website like worldpress.com.

• According to the press reports, the Chief of the Yemeni Supreme Shia Council has stated, “(Iraqi) military men advised Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh to kill Shias in the country as did Saddam in Iraq.” The ongoing violence in the Shia region of Saada has also been labeled a “genocide” by Sistani, the influential Shia leader of Iraq. Many Shias have fallen victim to the Yemeni security forces, which have been reportedly infiltrated by Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s former henchmen.[1].

DELETE 1) Again worldpress.org 2) What an "(Iraqi) military men" or a cleric sitting in Iraq thinks is totattly irrlevent. Human rights and non-profit non-political organizations are the only reliable source . Jidan 14:43, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Christian Science Monitor and World Press are reliable sources, don't try to remove sourced information that doesn’t suit your personal views. "The Shia cleric sitting in Iraq", Ayatollah Sistani, is an influncial leader of the world's Shias, this is similar to the Pope commenting on the treatment of Catholics in a country. Like it or not, Zaydi Shias are Shias nonetheless. --Mardavich 14:54, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, it depends on what you understand under sourced information. I can open my own website and write "Jidan is the best guy in the wolrd",but that wouldn't be a reliable source, would it? ;) Anyway, I conntacted user user:Al-Zaidi, he is a profi oin this topic. Until then, please stop throwing spam into the article. Thank you. Jidan 15:09, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Human Rights in Yemen

The Human Rights situation in Yemen is trivial because there was a media ban on the events that occurred in the Sa’dah governorate. The Human Rights issue in Yemen is not limited to one sect or creed. Women's rights as well as the rights of journalists have been an issue with the Yemeni government since even before the Sa’dah events. As for the situation between the Shi'i and Sunni in Yemen, it is varied across Yemen. Within the Sunni realm, there is an increase of people, mostly men, shifting from the Shafi'i school to the Salafi-Wahhabi version of Islam. It is also true that even some of the Zaidi youth have been known to shift to the Salafi-Wahhabi version of Islam. The reason for this shift is due to two reasons: in the former South Yemen, a Marxist regime took control, and religion was an element that was disallowed in a Communist state. Saudi Arabia funded a mass effort to maintain Islam in South Yemen. The version of Islam that was propagated was not Shafi'i but the Salafi-Wahhabi version of Islam. After Unification, there was no need to continue the mass effort in South Yemen. The resources were then shifted to the Northern tribal areas, where Zaidism was in the majority. Thus one of the largest and well funded Salafi-Wahhabi institutions, the Dar al-Hadeeth House Center, was built in Dammaj in the Sa‘dah governorate, the heartland of the Zaidis. It is obvious that tensions would arise in this type of situation. The problem today has several layers, the fall of Saddam's regime in Iraq, did cause an influx of Iraqi military personnel to obtain advisory positions in the Yemeni army. President Saleh and Saddam were good friends, hence President Saleh's support for Iraq in the 2nd Gulf War in 1991. This relationship allowed the Ba'thists to gain a larger base of operations in Yemen. They do have positions in the government just as the Salafi-Wahhabis and Zaidis. In Yemen the majority of Shi'is are Zaidi but there is a growing number of Ja'faris since the 1980s. The Ja'fari community in Yemen before the 1980s was minimal, with the mass influx of Shi'i books from Iran and the Shi'i workers from Iraq, the Ja'faris have a stable community in Sana'a and Ma'rib. As for the Shi'i Human Rights issue, there are several elements: from 1962-70, there was a civil war in North Yemen, after which there was the establishment of the Yemen Arab Republic. Once this happened all funding of Zaidi schools from the government ceased. Religious schools were shut down and the teachings of the Zaidi sect were limited to their mosques. The generic form of Islam became Sunnism due to the large number of Yemeni workers returning from the Gulf States in the 1990s, who were influenced by the Islam of the Gulf States. In Yemen the Salafi-Wahhabi institutions received funding from Saudi Arabia, thus they were allowed to continue teaching in their institutes. The lack of funds and schools is the first element for the decline in Zaidism. By contrast it is true that Ja'fari Shi'ism is increasing but just like the Zaidis they have been threatened by the Sa'dah events. The Sa’dah events start with the rebellion of al-Houthi, he was a Zaidi cleric that fought against the Yemeni government because he claims that the Yemeni government is cooperating with the US and Israel. This led to a mass effort by the Yemeni military to sweep all support away from al-Houthi by exercising violent military might. This is where the Human Rights question is raised. The actions of the army are akin to that of the Ba'thists in Iraq and the Wahhabi extremists. There has been a media ban issued on the Sa'dah events and journalists who have written on the subject have been jailed. The actions taken by the military and security personnel were not limited to the al-Houthi supporters; they included acts against Zaidi villages and Ja’faris. Security personnel denied Ja'fari scholars like Sheikh ‘Ala ad-Din al-Mousawi to return to Yemen from his trip to UAE. In 1999, the Fatima al-Zahra mosque, in the al-Haraja village of the Khawlan Zaidi tribe was shelled. Closing institutions, confiscating Shi'i books and the jailing of Zaidi clerics on Eid ul-Ghadeer in 2005, are all examples of actions taken by the military forces. It is true that Ayatullah Sistani in Najaf but also Ayatullah Ruhani in Mashhad have voiced concern because there are reports that the military personnel are harassing villagers, killing innocent civilians indiscriminately, shelling and bombing of villages and the confiscation of Shi’i books like the Najh al-Balagha of ‘Ali ibn Abu Talib and as-Sahifah as-Sajjadiyah of ‘Ali ibn Hussain, that are in turn being burned. Thus there is evidence of misconduct on the part of the military personnel regarding Human Rights violations. These violations have led to many accusations of “genocide”. This however is to be decided by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Al-Zaidi 7:07, 24 January 2007 (EST)

[edit] Removed text from article on Yemen

This has been recently removed from article on Yemen. May be parts of it can be used here.--Pethr 23:58, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

This section should be started by acknowledging the remarkable improvements in human rights conditions since the country's shift to democracy after its Unification in 1990. "The government has reflected its commitment and inclination towards improving human rights, especially after the political crisis of 1994, by sizeable reduction in unwarranted arrests. Furthermore, it reconfirmed and asserted right of speech and expression of opinion, which materialised in increasing numbers of political party newspapers reaching 12 by the year end of 2000. The government has also officially announced that prisons were free from prisoners of conscious. Arrests began to be carried out according to the legal due process, in addition to government exerting significant efforts to improve conditions of prisoners in general." "On the other hand, the government has since 1997 set out to initiate a Reform Program for the Judiciary, which focuses on confirming its independance, and improving the performance of the Courts. The program aims at enhancing the state of law and order in the country, so that people would feel that their lives, dignity, rights and property are ensured." [Yemen: Human Development Report 2000/2001, P:59, 60] However, regardless of such important achievements, the human rights situation in Yemen still poor. In any democracy the power has to reside with the people and their elected representatives. In violation of this basic principle of democracy, the constitutional amendments' referendum of February 2001, gave the Prisedent Ali Abdullah Saleh and his Party greater powers. As a result, "the parliamentary term was increased from four to six years and the president's right to decree laws when parliament was in recess was abolished but the amendment lengthened the presidential term from five to seven years, and authorised the President to appoint a 111- member Consultative Council. Opposition activists expressed concern that this body would allow the President to offset the role of the elected parliament, thus augmenting indirect executive control over legislation" (Human Rights Watch, Yemen Human Rights Development; http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/mideast/yemen.html)

"Tourture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment" are unlawful according to the constitution. The government, however, admitted publicly that tourture did happen, but denied it was a systematic policy. The government and its security forces, often considered to suffer from rampant corruption, have been responsible for torture, inhumane treatment and even extra judicial executions. Many reports observed that torture in government prisons did decline, but remained that "nonphysical indicator abuse such as sleep deprivation, cold water, and threats of sexual assaults" actually increased in some prisons "in order to obtain confession" (Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2004, US Department of State; http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41736.htm)

Throghout the year of 2004, about 54 police personnels were punished and or faced trial. The sentences received varied from less than a month to 1 years in prison "for physical attacks during investigations, shootings, accidental and intentional killings, fraud and extortion" (Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2004, US Department of State, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41736.htm)