International award highlighting UAE violations in Yemen
An international award recently awarded to a Yemeni human rights activist highlights the violations of the UAE and its war crimes against civilians.
Yemeni human rights activist Hoda al-Sarari must award the Martin Ennals award, which is a Nobel for Human Rights, awarded by ten of the most prominent human rights organizations around the world, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Organization Against Torture, and the International Commission of Jurists.
The award was given to Alsarari, a few months after honoring the Aurora Humanitarian Award in October 2019, for her outstanding role and contribution in defending human rights in Yemen.
The successive global recognition of the Yemeni lawyer was the culmination of its prominent role in exposing UAE crimes, particularly in the city of Aden since its liberation from the Houthis in mid-2015.
The activist, who also lost her son in March 2019, among the civilian victims of armed conflict in the city of Aden, presented the award to the mothers of the detainees and enforced disappearances, for their struggle and confronting the daily raids of the UAE forces and militias.
In a speech delivered at her honoring ceremony in Geneva, she said: “After the liberation of Aden from the Houthis, we hoped that law enforcement institutions would be supported, but the UAE did the exact opposite by establishing militias that are not subject to the law or the judiciary and the prosecution authorities, and established a secret prison network in which the worst forms of torture are practiced.”
She added: “After discovering this network of secret prisons run by the Emirates, I could not move the file in the official courts, resorted to the court of public opinion, and established with the mothers of the Association of Mothers of the Kidnapped, and we succeeded in releasing 260 detainees, and unfortunately there are still more than 2000 people in these prisons.”
Al-Sarari said, “the UAE is proud of its relationship with European countries and the administration of US President Donald Trump, but I am a mother and I lost my son, and I saw the UAE’s acts directly. You are not honored to link this countries’ name with its work in Yemen.”
She indicated that she was confident that European countries would not favor their economic interests over human rights principles, stressing that Abu Dhabi undermined the simple foundations of the Yemeni state.
It also called for not forgetting the violations of the Houthi group that committed crimes, including against human rights defenders and aid workers.
In turn, Human Rights Watch said that the award is given to prominent militants, in recognition of their commitment, courage and endangering their lives in support of human rights.
The international organization stated that “Hoda Al-Sarari has, with great courage, documented the conditions of secret prisons run by the Emirates in Yemen, despite the risks faced.”
