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With the completion of all
constitutional steps, the division of Yemen into two separate
states had ended for good. Since then, the Yemeni people began
to aspire for socio-economic development and unity building
and significant progress toward democracy, promoting Human
Rights principles, ensuring women's participation in
political, economical, and social life has been made.
The tangible
achievements have been realized under the guidance of His
Excellency the President of the Republic Ali Abdullah Saleh
and attributed to the sincere efforts and the hard work of
this proud nation.
Yemen has
the honor of being the first country in the Arabian Peninsula
to:
- Give women the right to vote
- Have elected women
as Members of Parliament
- Appoint a woman as Minister for
Human Rights
- Appoint a woman as an Ambassador to
Holland
- Establish the National Supreme Committee for
Human Rights headed by the Yemeni Prime Minister
-
Establish the Ministry for Human Rights headed by a woman
Minister
- Establish the Supreme Committee for the
National elections, the first independent elections body in
the Middle East.
Over the past decade, the Yemeni
Government has continued to demonstrate its commitment to
democracy. In 1990, following the unification, a multi-party
political system was established and in 1993 an independent
electoral commission was formed.
Updates:
The section below will be updated
regularly with new information on Democracy, Humans Rights and
Women's Issues in Yemen.
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| 2005-06-20 ::
Enhancing women's legal status |
(yementimes)- Nowadays most of countries
tend to review their laws and regulations and
modify them to meet with the international
conventions related to women. Yemen is among these
countries that have modified some discriminative
laws against woman to get together with the
international conventions the Yemen has ratified.
In this regard, under patronage of Sheikh
Abduallah Bin Hussein AL-Ahmer, speaker of
parliament, coordinating with the rights and
freedoms committee of parliament, the Women
National Committee (WNC) along with UNFPA held on
Tuesday 14 June a workshop entitled "Enhancing the
Women' Legal Status".
The aim of the
workshop was to display the National Strategy of
Woman Development (Gender) for 2006-2015 as well
as present some laws that should be modified.
Sheikh Al-Ahmar, who headed the
discussion, said "Woman have the right to be the
partner with man in all fields as she is the
mother, wife, sister and daughter. It is not
acceptable to marginalize and shun her or ignore
her key participation in the social life. Our
constitution allows the woman to take part in all
the activities of society and encourages her to
present and work."
AL-Ahmer further said
"We are with any modification that women claim but
it should be within the Islamic Sharee’a (laws and
regulations). The woman existence is very
essential in all fields and the educated woman is
better than the illiterate one for a better
generation and future."
Ms. Rashida
AL-Hamadani, the head of WNC started "This
workshop is gathering the parliament and the Woman
National Committee with the aim to have agreements
on crucial issues in enhancing the woman role in
development. The WNC has started reviewing the
constitutions laws since 2002 by forming a team to
assess 58 regulations and they have found that 20
law in nationality, prisons, civic states, and
civic records need modification. However, only 5
medications were approved. Then for the second
time we have found other 12 laws which need to be
modified besides the previous 15. So today we will
let the modification projects between your hands
to discuss them and you will figure out that they
are basic needs for Yemeni woman to ensure fair
and justice rights to enable her to strongly take
part in the society."
Ms. Houria Mashhor,
the deputy of WNC, displayed the National Strategy
of Woman Development and shed light on the six
goals of the strategy that represent in provide
the basic education for all by 2015 to reduce the
illiteracy among woman. Besides, expanding the job
opportunities for women to get all the necessary
health care. In addition reduce the rate of poor
women into a half and try to empower her
economically as well as raise the level of woman
participation quality and quantity in all
decision-making to represent women issues.
Furthermore facilitate the ways for woman to
practice her rights within the international and
national conventions. Finally expanding and
enhancing the woman participation and role in
media and technology and communication field to
promote the women concerns.
On the other
part, Ms. Fatihia Abdul Wasea, a lawyer, presented
the most important modified laws.
Mr.
Alexander Ellen, the UNFPA representative,
commented on the workshop "I would like to
underline that despite of situation with status of
women is improving, more could be done during the
forthcoming years of introduction of the new
5-year national development plan which strongly
connected with poverty reduction strategy and the
Millennium Development Project for which Yemen is
selected as the only country of the
region."
He further said "Thanks to the
recent initiative of the parliament, the new
legislative acts under the way. The law on
emergency safe motherhood could make a dramatic
change in the status of women in Yemen through
improving reproductive health and easing access to
the birth spacing techniques and health care.
Directly and indirectly such improvements would
lead to broadening women's access to education,
social life and decision making. |
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| 2005-06-07 ::
Yemen, Saudi cooperation to combat children
smuggling |
| (yemetimes)- SANAA, June 07 (Nas Press) —
Yemen and Saudi authorities have agreed to
cooperate against smuggling of Yemeni children
across the Saudi border. The Saudi daily al-Wattan
said Saudi security authorities “have forged a
thorough plan to make and end to human trade
smuggling gangs across the border with Yemen and
to fight the exploitations of women and children
used by begging gangs in nine governorates.” Saudi
Border Security Commander Colonel Abrahim
al-Santalli said “the plan is being implemented
with cooperation between the Saudi and Yemeni
authorities,” adding “security cooperation
agreements with Yemen stipulate that Saudi
authorities hand over Yemeni children who are
found with begging gangs so they can be returned
to their parents in Yemen.” He stressed “combating
the dangers of children and women smuggling gangs
is backed up by border security forces,” adding
“border security arrested 39,868 beggars including
women and children in the past 30 days, and 199
smugglers were arrested along with 175 cars and an
attempt to smuggle 17,868 bullets, 11 pieces of
weapons, 2,500 dynamites, 2,400 primacord used in
initiating dynamite explosions was foiled.” He
disclosed “381 thousand Kg of Qat was confiscated,
40Kg of hashish, and 120 gallons of alcohol, 4609
heads of cattle and 403 thousand types of food
were confiscated as well.” |
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| 2005-06-07 ::
Further German contribution in UNDP Mine Action
Program |
(yementimes)- The Embassy of the Federal
Republic of Germany is proud to announce that the
Federal Government of Germany has just made
available a contribution up to the total amount of
343.650 US$ for further implementation of the Mine
Detection Dog Operations within the framework of
the UNDP Mine Action Program in Yemen.
The
money will be used for area reduction, clearance
as well as quality assurance in medium mine
affected communities in Yemen.
In total,
since 2001, the German Government has supported
this program with the sum of 3.8 million
US$. |
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| 2005-02-10 ::
Clerics banned from sermons |
(yemen times)- Yemeni officials have banned
18 clerics from giving sermons in mosques to
reduce sources of terrorism.
Deputy Islamic
Affairs and Guidance Minister Yahyia al-Najjar
issued a Sunday statement saying the decision was
part of a government plan that also includes
dispatching clerics to advocate awareness on
balance, away from extremist and fundamentalist
ideas, whether religious or political.
The
official added the new plan will complete bringing
all mosques and religious guidance centers under
government supervision after it had taken control
of most of the mosques that had been dominated by
extremist political influences in the past
years.
Al-Najjar said the plan included
providing training to spiritual guides and clerics
that focused on correcting the wrong ideas in
religious Islamic texts.
A survey showed
last year that the ministry supervised only 6,000
of 72,000 mosques, raising government concerns
that clerics would continue to politicize religion
and preach extremist beliefs. |
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| 2005-01-09 ::
Yemeni-Saudi committee to face children smuggling
|
(mhryemen.org)- The Yemeni and Saudi
governments are carrying out preparations for
setting up a joint social affairs committee to
deal with many social issues, the most important
of which is the smuggling of Yemeni children to
neighboring countries, social affairs source said.
Minister of Social Affairs Abdul-Karim
al-Arhabi said in the first debate session on
smuggling Yemeni children, organized on Saturday
by senior Yemeni officials in coordination with
UNICEF, that the Yemeni-Saudi joint committee was
formed in the recent meetings of the Yemeni-Saudi
Coordination Council.
Al-Arhabi said that
the ministry started to set up schools in the
areas of the phenomenon as an initial step to
solve this dilemma.
He said that the
ministry would work with the Parliament and
Ministry of Human Rights to put decisive laws
against children traffickers and all people
involved.
Minister of human rights Amat
al-Aleem al-Soswa, representative of UNICEF and
head of Freedoms Committee in the Parliament
expressed worry for the increasing of this
phenomenon, asking for solving the poverty problem
in the country and continuous contact with
neighboring governments to find suitable
solutions. |
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| 2004-12-15 ::
Conference stresses need for reform in Middle
Eastern societies |
(dailystar.com.lb)- SANAA: Women from Arab
countries gathered over the weekend for the First
Democratic Forum of Arab Women to discuss the
importance of women's political participation in
political reforms in the Arab World.
Amal
Basha, Chairwoman of the Sisters Arab Forum for
Human Rights (SAF), which organized the
conference, described Saturday's event as a
"scream" to the Arab regimes for the need to
change and to involve women in
decision-making.
The three-day long forum,
organized under the framework of Beijing +10 with
Yemen's Human Rights Ministry and The Netherlands,
aims at countries in the region benefiting from
each other's experiences to push for women's
involvement in politics.
About 70
participants from the Middle East and Africa,
including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco,
Lebanon, Somalia and Iraq, presented their
countries' practices and progress made in women's
political empowerment. They include leaders of
women's movements, human rights activists, and
members of the civil
society.
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| 2004-12-13 ::
Final Declaration of the First Democratic Forum of
Arab Women |
()- Arab social movements - including
women’s movement- had been and are calling long
time ago for political reforms in the Arab region.
Such calls have been always nationally motivated
and stemmed from scanning the reality of the Arab
political regimes characterized by lack of
democracy which involves women’s poor political
participation.
Based on that and within the UN
preparation for the international conference “
Beijing +10” in March 2005, which will discuss
precisely progress achieved in the area of women
participation in power and decision making
positions, Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights
held the First Democratic Forum for Arab Women
titled “Women Political Empowerment is a Necessary
Step Towards Political Reform in Arab World”,
under the patronage of Ms. Amat Al-Alim
Al-Sosouwa- Human Rights Minister- Yemen, attended
by 72 representing Arab women movement, human
rights activists and civil society organizations
in 18 Arab countries.
The opening session was
attended by a number of senior officials,
diplomatic reprehensive, parliamentarians, members
of Consultative Council, civil society, political
parties, local and international media. The
statements in the opening ceremony addressed the
challenges of Arab women’s political empowerment
and democratic reform issues in
general.
Following the inauguration, regional
papers outlining the reality of women political
participation and its wide range political,
cultural, social, legal and economic constraints
and challenges in each country were
presented.
Later on three workshops were held
focusing on the following themes:
- Political
challenges
- Social and cultural
challenges
- Legislative challenges
The
presentation of the reports of the three workshops
was followed by intensive discussion led to the
following conclusions:
-Absence and weakness of
democracy in the Arab ruling regimes and lack of
democratic norms in some others.
-Non respect
of human rights in its universality.
-Absence
of political stability in the Arab region for
various reasons such as occupation, civil
conflicts, quos, negative impacts of globalization
and domination of a unilateral
pole.
-Domination of patriotic culture and
division of roles and responsibilities based on
gender inequality and women’s inferiority.
-Weakness of advocacy and lobbying for women’s
rights in Arab societies.
-Spread of female’s
illiteracy especially in rural areas.
-Gender
inequality in access to education in some Arab
countries.
-Ill - education and negative role
of media in presenting a stereotype role for
women.
-Manipulation of conservative religious
political discourse which aims to undermine
women’s participation in public life specifically
the political sphere.
-Poor economies and
spread of poverty particularly between
women.
-Some discriminatory constitutional and
legal texts which deny women’s political rights in
some Arab countries.
-Lack of harmony in the
legislative structure of some Arab countries where
their constitutions stipulate equality principles,
some of in-forced laws include discriminative
texts against women such as personal law,
nationality law and penalty law.
-The election
laws in –forced in Arab countries are impairing
for women political empowerment and getting them
in equal percentage to parliaments and legislative
councils.
-Some Arab countries have not
ratified CEDAW and its optional protocol while
some have some reservations on a number of
articles which make the convention
meaningless.
-Incompatibility of national
legislations with international agreement which
been ratified and lack of
commitments.
After serious discussion for
all issues, the participants reached the following
recommendations and solutions:
-The necessity
for political reform in Arab regimes and
activating the principles of law’s domination,
separation of powers, peaceful handover of power,
pluralism, freedom of expression and public
freedom.
-Adaptation of positive intervention
for women’s interests through approving quota
system with 30% as a minimum till 2010 in decision
making positions in legislative, juridical,
executive powers and political
parties.
-Removal of all discrimination against
women in all national constitutions and laws,
ensure adequacy with international agreements and
commit their implementation.
-Call Arab
countries who have not ratified CEDAW yet to
ratify it and remove reservations.
-Involvement
of women and women’s organizations in drafting and
reviewing laws.
-Amendments of election laws
according to quota system to ensure a wide
representation of women.
-Develop sectoral
strategies and spread of human rights
education.
-Adopt a supportive media policy for
woman’s role in political life.
-Importance of
education, girl’s education, application of
compulsory and free school enrollment and adult
education particularly for women and in rural
areas.
-Amend curriculum to include human
rights principles and international
laws.
-Training and raising political and
rights awareness and eradicate women’s legal
illiteracy.
-Organize capacity building and
training programmes for women candidates for
election on campaigning, communication and support
women parliamentarians to upgrade their work
methods.
-Financial support and establishment
of funds to support women candidates.
-Activate
women’s organizations and human rights
organizations roles and support women political
empowerment programmes.
-Lobby with
organizations against the negative globalization
and domination of unilateral pole.
-Lobby with
social movements and enlightened religious trend
to push women political participation
forward.
-Invite Arab countries to ratify Rome
Statute for International Criminal Court to stop
violations for human rights during peace and war
time and present war and humanitarian crimes
especially in Arab countries under occupation in
Palestine and Iraq.
-Held the second Democratic
Forum in two years time to exchange information
and experience and evaluate progress achieved
after “ Beijing +10”.
Adopted by First
Democratic Forum for Arab Women by
Consensus
Sana’a – Yemen
13 December 2004
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| 2004-12-13 ::
Arab Women’s Forum |
(yementimes.com)- The first democratic
forum of Arab women concluded its activities at
the Sheraton Sana’a Hotel on Dec. 13 2004. The
women who participated in the forum met with the
President of the Republic who highly appreciated
holding the forum confirming the higher position
attained by Yemeni woman in all democratic issues
as well as all decisions and recommendations
thanking the Yemeni participants who organized for
the forum.
The forum was organized from by the
Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) under
the patronage of Amat Al-Aleem Al-Souswa, Minister
of Human Rights, operating under the slogan that
“women’s empowerment is necessary step for
political reform in the Arab world.”
The forum
held several sessions and workshops examining
political, legislative, cultural, and social
challenges for women in the Arab world.
The
opening celebration was attended by al-Souswa,
Netherlands Ambassador Johan F.L. Blankenberg,
head of SAF Amal Al-Basha, and a number of
personalities and journalists interested in human
rights issues. After reciting some verses from the
Holy Qura’an, Amal Al-Basha initiated the
celebration commenting on the ambitions and all
Arab women regarding their rights in participation
in decision-making positions.
Khadijah
al-Roukani spoke after that about the Moroccan
experiences in women’s rights. Khadijah Habashinah
presented a clear picture about the situation of
women in Palestine. Johan F. L. Blankenberg
delivered his speech showing the audience the
serious support of Holland for issues of human
rights in general and women rights in particular.
He reinforced that despite being in its infancy,
Yemen has made significant progress. |
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| 2004-12-12 ::
VITAL LEADERS OF THE GULF REGION |
(vitalvoices.org)- Vital Voices Global
Partnership has launched its Women’s Leadership
Initiative in the Middle East and Afghanistan
(WLIMEA) program with an intensive training in
Sana’a for women leaders from the Gulf and Yemen.
Developed in coordination with the Yemeni Minister
of Human Rights, Amat al-Aleem AlSosswa, and the
Women’s National Committee, this training joined
30 women leaders from Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi
Arabia, and Oman to discuss challenges and
successes, exchange information, and build
strategic relationships while gaining needed
skills in negotiations, strategic planning,
leadership, and communications
Status of Women
in the Region
Participants were also asked
to make presentations on topics related to the
status of women in their countries. Iraqi women
discussed women and conflict. Participants from
Oman identified challenges facing Omani women,
while the participants from Saudi Arabia discussed
women’s slowly emerging roles in business and
civil society.
In sessions on strategic
planning, participants worked in groups across
country lines to develop a five-year strategic
plan for a hypothetical organization focused on
women’s issues. The women presented plans that
were critiqued and discussed by a panel as well as
by the larger group. Such interactive work served
as the model for the subsequent training sessions
on leadership, negotiations and
communic
Creating a Regional Network
During the lively concluding discussion,
participants initiated plans and requested Vital
Voices assistance to create a regional network to
assure that the women remain in close
communications with each other and with Vital
Voices. They nominated representatives from each
country to take lead responsibility for continued
information sharing. Some of the women,
particularly the participants from Saudi Arabia,
Iraq and Kuwait, urgently requested additional
training. Participants from Yemen and Oman
reconfirmed their needs to continue work started
with Vital Voices in recent years.
National
and Regional Attention and Coverage
The
program received wide media coverage, including by
Kuwaiti Satellite television, which interviewed
Jenin Assaf, Vital Voices Program Director of the
Middle East and Afghanistan, covered portions of
the training, and interviewed a participant from
Kuwait. In addition, Yemeni and Al-Jazeera
satellite television reported on this women’s
leadership program, discussing its objectives in
detail. Speaking in Arabic to regional and
national print journalists, Ms. Assaf highlighted
the achievements and obstacles facing women
leaders in the Arab world in general and the Gulf
region in particular. Upon hearing about the
initiative, the President of Yemen, H.E. Ali
Abdullah Saleh invited the participants and
trainers to his offices to learn more about the
Vital Voices program and pledge his support for
the advancement of women in his
country.
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| 2004-06-20 ::
Sana’a Conference for religious men and
intellectuals |
(yementimes.com)- The First Islamic
Guidance Conference was inaugurated in the
presence of about 270 official dignitaries,
religious figures, intellectuals and interested
individuals from all over the world in the field
of guidance.
The four-day conference, organized
by the Ministry for Waqf and Guidance, will
examine before a number of working papers and
discuss the most important issues related to the
life of the Muslim community. The conference aims
to clarify the misunderstandings and debates that
have emerged in some Muslim societies.
Among
the issues to be discussed are Jihad in Islam, the
role of religious men in directing society and
reviving the message of mosques, denouncing
extremism and fanaticism, the issuing of Fatwas
(formal legal opinions), and other essential
issues in this era, which is burdened with
unprecedented challenges.
A number of optimists
predict that the conference will come out with
positive results, to improve the message of
mosques, and to show the bright side of Islam. It
is hoped that the conference will produce a number
of recommendations to benefit Muslim communities
in Muslim countries and abroad and in
crystallizing the Islamic and religious dialogue
in a manner relevant to the reality of the world
today.
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| 2004-05-17 ::
Al-Soswa among the Vital Voices of the world
|
(yementimes.com)- Amat Al-Aleem Al-Susuwa
Yemeni Minister of Human Rights Ms. Amat Al-Aleem
Al-Susuwa has been honored with two international
awards in the field of women leadership and
defending human rights.
Al-Susuwa has a
Vital Voice Celebrations in the US capital
Washington DC will take place next month on the
occasion of the presentation of an award to
Al-Susuwa in the field of women’s political
leadership, along with five other internationally
prominent female dignitaries.
Washington,
DC-based Vital Voices human rights organization,
whose headquarters is in Washington, confirmed
granting the award to Ms. Al-Susuwa as
appreciation for her distinguished work in
supporting human rights and civil rights in
Yemen.
Vital Voices is a global partnership
to support women’s progress in building
democracies, strong economies and peace. Our work
focuses on three critical areas: expanding women’s
roles in politics and civil society; increasing
successful women’s entrepreneurship; and fighting
trafficking in women and girls and other human
rights abuses.
On this occasion, Yemen
Times contacted Sandra Willett Jackson, the
President of the Vital Voices Global Partnership,
who gave the following exclusive statement to
Yemen Times. “Vital Voices is thrilled to honor
your Minister of Human Rights, the Honorable
Al-Susuwa. The award will be presented to her on
Tuesday evening, May 18th. On the evening of May
17, your Honorable Ambassador to the United States
will host a dinner in honor of the Minister and
two other extraordinary women leaders. Later in
the week, Minister Al-Susuwa will participate in
meetings at the U.S. Department of State and in
discussions with the press and public policy
leaders about Yemen, women’s role in government,
and trends in women’s leadership in the
region.”
She added that , “as President of
Vital Voices, I am pleased to tell you that we
have selected Yemen’s Minister of Human Rights to
receive our award for three reasons: her tireless
work to bring women into political and civic life
in Yemen, her leadership on women’s human rights
in the region, and her pioneering work which makes
her a role model for women around the globe.
To
cite one example, Minister Al-Susuwa participated
in the leadership training Vital Voices conducted
in Muscat, Oman, last November for Omani women. As
a result of this training, many more women in Oman
have been able to take leadership training
programs. They have now the communications skills,
strategic planning concepts, and better
understanding of what women’s political
participation can do to stabilize governments and
improved local economies.
Vital Voices is
very grateful to Minister Al-Susuwa for working
with Vital Voices. We would like more people
around the world to know about her contributions
to progress for all the citizens of
Yemen.”
Italian award too
On the
other hand, the Italian Marisa Bellisario
organization has also decided to grant Ms.
Al-Susuwa its international prize from among more
than 70 prominent individuals, all distinguished
supporters of human rights in their own
countries.
The Marisa Bellisario Foundation
is an Italian ethical society with a fundamental
goal in strengthening women’s resources and
abilities, placing particular focus on those women
who have dedicated themselves to business,
management and entrepreneurial careers.
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| 2004-03-04 :: HR
Minister says U.S. State Department's report very
positive |
(sabanews.net)- Minister of Human Rights
Amatul-Aleem al-Suswah stated that the U.S.
Department of State report on human rights in
Yemen was very positive.
Al-Suswah told the
26 September weekly that the report seriously
pointed out to faults that need to be dealt
with.
The report, however, appreciated
positive strides made by Yemeni government last
year, and significant achievements in respect of
human rights.
Al-Suswah said she had agreed
with the American ambassador to Sana'a Edmond Hull
on having a U. S. contribution for improving jails
and reforming judiciary of Yemen.
The human
rights minister is heading on Friday for the
Netherlands to participate in the International
Symposium on Reproductive Rights at the invitation
of the Dutch Minister for Cooperation and
Development.
From there, the minister said,
she would fly to Switzerland to participate in the
60th Round for UN Human Rights
Committee.
She added that she would deliver
Yemen's report on human rights and efforts
developed in this respect.
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