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WILPF Present in Yemen UPR Pre-session

1 December 2013
The Universal Periodic Review, a human rights exam for UN Member States

The second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Yemen will be held in January 2014. The UPR is a mechanism through which the human rights records of every United Nations member State are reviewed by all the other member states.

During the UPR, UN Member States make recommendations to the State under Review on how to improve their human rights records. The State under Review has then to implement these recommendations before the next review.

If you want to know more about the UPR process, watch WILPF’s webinar on the Human Rights Council and the UPR.

An opportunity for WILPF and its partners to bring local experiences

There are different ways in which civil society can take part in the UPR process. In particular, prior to the review, civil society can participate in national consultations held by the State under review, submit a report to the Human Rights Council UPR Working Group, lobby foreign States through embassies and permanent mission in Geneva and/or participate in the UPR pre-session.

The UPR pre-sessions are organised by UPR-Info, a Geneva-based NGO, with the objective of strengthening collaboration between civil society organisations, national human rights institutions and UN member States. The pre-session gives the opportunity to NGOs to present their reports and more importantly to suggest recommendations to permanent delegations.

WILPF systematically engages in pre-sessions to bring its expertise and share it with various stakeholders in Geneva. The Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC), a partner organization of MENA Agenda 1325, a project of WILPF, came to this UPR pre-session with the support of WILPF to talk about women in Yemen. We have focused our recommendations on women’s rights and gender-related issues and suggested concrete measures to address the loopholes of Yemen’s legislations.

Status of women in Yemen’s legislations

Although Yemen has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984, laws and legislations in Yemen are still not harmonized with international conventions and treaties. After almost 30 years, Yemeni women continue to suffer from discrimination in law and practice. The personal status law, the penal code, and the citizenship law are among others that contain provisions that discriminate against women.

In the current constitution of Yemen, women are not ascribed the equal citizenship status with men as article (31) describes them as “sisters of men”. Women cannot leave the country without the permission of their male guardian. The personal status law grants the husband the right to divorce his wife whenever he wants without the need to justify the divorce. Whilst a woman seeking divorce, according to article (54) in the personal status law, is required to give reasons justifying her decisions. The judge will investigate and decide whether the reasons are valid. If granted divorce, she will then lose her financial rights.

Discriminatory provisions can be further demonstrated in article (40) of the personal status law which requires the woman to obey her husband in what is in the “better interest for the family”, including asking permission of her husband whenever she wants to leave the matrimonial home.

The so-called “honour killings” remain largely unpunished by the law. ِArticle (232) in the penal code states that man who kills or injuries his wife or her partner in committing adultery should pay a fine or be imprisoned for only one year, a penalty far less severe than for any other killing.

A woman’s voice from Yemen in the UPR pre-session

The representative of HRITC, only Yemeni on the panel, gave a powerful testimony of what life is for a woman in Yemen. She draw the audience attention on human rights violations faced by women in Yemen and especially inequality and discrimination, limited participation in public and political life, limited right to education and health and high rates of violence against women.

She shared her experience as a woman living in Yemen with concrete examples. For example, she explained that girls have a limited access to education because of the lack of schools and inadequate access to toilets. She also talked about restrictions imposed on women when it comes to parental authority. She finished her presentation describing the hardship survivors of violence are affected by, and in particular, the threat of honor killings.

Concrete measures to improve women’s lives in Yemen

The current National Dialogue Conference (NDC) offers a genuine opportunity to advance women’s rights in the new constitution and the final reports that will emerge from the consultations. The NDC has 9 working groups, where each group is discussing a particular topic and is asked to submit a final report to the NDC secretary general. On this occasion, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has addressed the chair of the rights and freedoms working group with a list of recommendations for women’s rights to be embedded in the final report. The NDC has not yet concluded and it is not known if it will endorse the final report submitted by the rights and freedoms working group.

In the suggested recommendations by HRITC and WILPF to the second UPR of Yemen, we echoed some of the recommendations made by HRW. More specifically, the recommendations spanned the topics of 1) Equality and non-discrimination; 2) Participation to public and political life; 3) Right to education and right to health; and 4) Violence against women and honour killings.

To read all the recommendations on concrete measures to improve women’s lives and the loopholes of Yemen’s legislation regarding the status of women, download the joint recommendations by WILPF and HRITC.

What to do now?

WILPF International Secretariat, in particular the Human Rights programme and the MENA Agenda 1325 project, will promote the endorsement of our recommendations by UN Member States.

We will keep you updated on the outcome of the second UPR of Yemen; you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for live updates and subscribe to our newsletters to get the latest news directly in your inbox.

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Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

A woman in a blue, black, and white dress smiles radiantly in front of a leafy green background.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.