Hearings for Victims of Torture and Inhuman Treatment Held by the National Commission of Inquiry

Friday – 26 June 2020

Today, the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights held secret hearings for victims of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment they were subjected to in a number of Yemeni governorates, in conjunction with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The Commission listened to (13) victims who reviewed the events and details of the physical torture they were subjected to with various tools and means, the psychological and moral torture, the life threats, the sexual violence as reported by some victims, and the denial of civil and social rights, health and food.

The victims reviewed the names of the authorities and persons accountable for these practices, the nature of their jobs, and the places where torture was practiced.

Moreover, five mothers and wives of victims, who have been in the lead in taking care of the victims’ affairs, were heard. They revealed their suffering they experienced to know the fate of their children and husbands, psychological torture, and the threat they faced as a result of research and communication.

During the hearings, the survivors and their families demanded to end the injustice that is experienced by the victims of torture and begin to hold accountable the perpetrators of torture and inhuman acts that violate all divine laws, national legislations, and international human rights covenants.

These hearings are part of the Commission’s mechanisms for investigating violations committed by all parties against this category of victims and documenting the data recorded in the hearings in the archives of the Commission in conjunction with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

On this occasion, the National Commission calls on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to stop acts of torture, hold the perpetrators accountable, guarantee the legal rights of detainees, and initiate the release of all detainees held in violation of the law, especially with the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Yemen where the pandemic will find in these prisons and detention centers a more conducive environment to spread and cause deaths.