Disha Mohanty, student at National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam, India, and Satvik Mishra, student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, India, analyze the state of human rights for journalists in war torn Yemen...

This year, Yemen enters its sixth year of being stuck in the middle of a civil war. What began as a result of political transition to help Yemen regain stability in 2011, intensified in 2015, when a group of Gulf states, backed by the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and France began airstrikes against the Houthis, the rebels. These airstrikes were apparently conducted to restore the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government in the Arab country. 6 years later, this has only resulted in the country facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Sanaa, the country’s capital, isn’t the only war-torn city. What was earlier known as the cultural capital of Yemen, Taiz, is now a sight of human suffering and pain. While most of the residents die due to artillery shelling, the ones saved from the wrath lose their lives to hunger and diseases. For almost about six years, civilians across the country have been facing the brunt of military hostilities and unlawful practices of the State’s armed and non-armed forces equally. Since 2015, more than 20,000 civilians have been killed and today, roughly 16 million people have to go without food every day.

When a country is facing the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, it is expected for its media to seek help globally to better the situation. However, this has not been the case with Yemen. The latest Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate (YJS) shows 66 media violations have already taken place in the first half of 2020. Yemini Journalists are brutally attacked upon, persecuted, tortured and this situation is only deteriorating.

Earlier this year, more than 150 human rights and press freedom groups came forward, demanding the release of the four journalists who were sentenced to death on charges of being spies. They had previously served 5 years in the “dire conditions” of the prison, given the torture and lack of medical facilities. The four journalists were part of a bigger group of 10 journalists, of which, 6 have already been convicted on the grounds of aiding the Gulf countries to overthrow the Houthis.

Most of the journalists have either left the country or resettled in the rural neighbourhood, away from the politically volatile cities. This is because most of the journalists in the city have been assaulted on various accounts with the families living in fear due to constant threats. The country already has very few foreign journalists, the majority of whom maintain a low profile. When the Houthis started to illegally detain journalists to control narratives around the war, an army of pro-Saudi Twitter bots started suppressing social media posts documenting the after-effects of airstrikes. With the various conflicting parties controlling the media, it is next to impossible to find neutral reporting of the war.

The United Nations has recorded over 350 incidents of Human Rights violations of journalists since the start of the Civil War in early 2015. These include 28 incidences of murders, one kidnapping, over 40 assaults, 180 detentions and the closing down of various media outlets to mention a few. Citizen-journalists are strictly monitored all over the country and any one social media post by them can lead to their arrest. Even those journalists who switched jobs for their safety continue to face threats for reports they wrote in the past.

The United Nations recently addressed this situation when Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (“OHCHR”), raised an alarm regarding the violation of Human Rights of journalists stating that it has gone ‘from bad to worse’. She even pointed out that these attacks against journalists may also constitute war crimes under the International Humanitarian Law.

Responding to the death sentences awarded to the journalists, she requested the authorities to quash the sentence, as the journalists shouldn’t be tried for carrying out their legitimate duties. She urged the release of the journalists and punish the people behind the violence against the journalists.

While the OHCHR might have brought things under control for the time being, given the deplorable state of Yemen’s humanitarian and economic condition, there lies a grave, long road ahead. Of all the times, it is now that Yemen needs maximum international support.