Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

We will also offer the government direct bilateral support. Future funding will look to
address some of the key potential conflict drivers and development areas in Yemen.
We hope that these projects will lead, for example, to greater participation and
leadership by Yemeni women in society and add support to Yemeni civil society.
Elections
Parliamentary elections, which were originally postponed in 2009 and were
rescheduled for April 2011, look likely to be postponed again. Some progress was
made in July when the ruling party and opposition began a process of National
Dialogue. However, a new election law passed in December last year has
threatened this process and may result either in opposition parties boycotting the
parliamentary elections or a further delay of these elections.
Rule of law
Human rights abuses are not systematic within the Yemeni judicial and penal system
but media and NGO reports of summary arrests, police brutality, prolonged pre-trial
detention and torture are commonplace. The extent of these abuses is unclear: the
Ministry of Human Rights is not forthcoming and the government has yet to establish
the independent Human Rights Commission, as recommended Yemen’s 2009 UN
Universal Periodic Review.
The judiciary lacks independence and is vulnerable to executive interference;
Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council is appointed by the president. The law is
inconsistently applied. For example, the Yemeni constitution forbids slavery, yet the
practice continues with an estimated 500 slaves in Yemen, mainly in remote areas.
Death penalty
Yemeni criminal law allows for the death penalty for murder, rape, adultery, armed
robbery, serious kidnapping, treason and homosexuality (when both parties are in
heterosexual marriages). There are no reliable reports on the number of people on
death row, but we believe there are hundreds. In theory the law prohibits the
application of the death penalty against juvenile defendants, yet inconsistencies in
the age of criminal responsibility mean that juveniles continue to be sentenced to
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