Yemen: survivors of torture facilities set up by the UAE speak out
The United Arab Emirates and their proxies in the South of Yemen have set up a horrific network of torture facilities in Yemen. Mwatana has interviewed tens of survivors of detention-related abuses and their families.
Mwatana and the OMCT have told their story in a report submitted to the Committee Against Torture, at the occasion of the first review of the UAE, almost ten years after its ratification of the Convention and seven years after the beginning of the Yemen war.
This report demonstrates that the UAE has been running unofficial detention facilities in Yemen, and that the UAE and UAE-backed Yemeni forces have arbitrarily arrested, forcibly detained, and tortured Yemeni civilians, and held detainees in cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions. Despite numerous call for accountability raised by UN authorities and international and national NGOs, perpetrators have not been held to account, and victims of these violations are left without any form of redress, both in Yemen and in the UAE.
Based on these findings, Mwatana and the OMCT call for the UAE to abide by its international legal obligations under the Convention; to stop committing and assisting or instigating abuses, including torture; to conduct serious investigations; to prosecute those responsible; and to provide effective redress to victims.
