Geneva – SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties warned that Yemen is facing an increasingly bleak human rights situation this year, with arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance continuing as systematic practices employed by all parties to the conflict without distinction. According to SAM, these violations have evolved into a fully integrated system of repression targeting journalists, activists, politicians, academics, and even humanitarian workers—amounting to crimes against humanity under international law.
The organization noted that the 2023 report by the UN Human Rights Council’s Panel of Experts found “reasonable grounds to believe” that all conflict parties in Yemen have engaged in arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture. The report also highlighted that some detainees were denied necessary medical care, causing permanent disabilities and, in some cases, death. Most detainees were never brought before a court or charged with any legal offense but were held incommunicado for indefinite periods—practices that amount to war crimes under international law and require accountability.
From Enforced Disappearance to Torture
Reports by SAM and other international organizations confirm the widespread use of torture and enforced disappearance in both official and unofficial detention facilities across Yemen. Between 2014 and 2019, SAM documented over 3,000 cases of torture in detention centers operating without any judicial oversight. Victims were subjected to brutal methods including electric shocks, prolonged suspension, deprivation of sleep and medical care, mock executions, and sexual violence used as a tool of humiliation. Migrants from Africa were not spared, facing horrific abuses such as killings, mutilation, rape, and enforced disappearance at the hands of warring parties and human traffickers alike.
The Yemeni Prisoners and Detainees Team documented 17,638 cases of physical and psychological torture between September 2015 and December 2021, including 587 children and 150 women. Similarly, the Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations recorded 1,635 abductees subjected to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment in Houthi prisons during the same period—among them 109 children, 33 women, and 78 elderly individuals across 17 governorates.
Deaths under torture have exceeded 200 detainees in recent years. SAM recorded 70 deaths in 2016, 53 in 2017, and 56 in 2018, in addition to dozens more in subsequent years. Rights Radar documented 271 deaths caused by torture between September 2014 and February 2021—evidence that torture in Yemen has become an institutionalized policy shared by all warring factions, in blatant violation of domestic and international laws that absolutely prohibit torture.
Documented Incidents in 2025
In August, SAM documented a large-scale Houthi arrest campaign targeting General People’s Congress leaders in Sana’a, including Secretary-General Ghazi Al-Awhal, calling it further evidence of severe restrictions on political activity in Yemen. The organization also reported the arrest of journalist Hamoud Haza’a in Marib after security forces stormed his home and terrorized his family.
In July 2025, a disturbing case emerged in Sana’a involving the detention of several young women at night without judicial authorization—a blatant legal violation—after they helped a woman who was experiencing domestic abuse. They were interrogated by male security officers under degrading conditions, revealing the fragile state of legal protections for women in Yemen.
In April, Houthi forces carried out widespread raids across Sana’a, Sa’ada, Al-Hodeidah, and Al-Mahwit, arresting dozens of civilians and educators, including Deputy Director of Education Abdu Saleh Yusuf, on allegations of receiving humanitarian aid. These arrests were accompanied by an incitement campaign led by prominent Houthi figures, explicitly calling for the execution of detainees. In Al-Mahwit, citizens were arrested for sharing a video of a misfired Houthi missile. In Sana’a, security forces detained around 30 people for filming the aftermath of an airstrike on a residential market, while in Al-Hodeidah, eight individuals were arrested for posting images of airstrike victims.
In February 2025, SAM documented serious violations by the 7th Giants Brigade in Al-Hays, Al-Hodeidah governorate, including home raids and arrests of journalists and activists without legal grounds—further evidence of a growing environment of repression lacking even the most basic judicial safeguards.
Secret Prisons in Yemen
SAM warned that Yemen’s network of secret prisons represents one of the most alarming forms of systematic abuse committed by conflict parties. These facilities have become hubs for arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and systematic torture, operating entirely outside legal or judicial oversight. SAM emphasized that these are not just unlawful detention sites—they are part of a comprehensive system of violations targeting political opponents, journalists, activists, and civilians, in clear breach of Yemeni law and international treaties.
UN reports have confirmed the existence of a vast network of unofficial detention centers in southern Yemen, including Camp 7 October in Zinjibar, Al-Buraiqa Base, Bir Ahmed II in Aden, and Al-Rayyan Base in Mukalla, along with secret facilities in Seiyun and Shabwa. These centers have been linked to grave abuses such as enforced disappearance, physical and psychological torture, sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and the forced transfer of detainees within Yemen and abroad—such as sending some to the Assab facility in Eritrea.
In Houthi-controlled areas, UN experts and SAM documented dozens of secret detention locations in Sana’a alone, including private homes, mosques, hospitals, and converted police stations such as Dar Al-Quran, facilities linked to Al-Iman University, the Orphanage Hospital, and security branches like the 7 July and Al-Nasr Police Stations. Official prisons—including Habra, Al-Thawra, and the Political Security Center—were also used to conceal hundreds of detainees, often denying families any information about their fate or whereabouts. According to the UN Panel of Experts, some of these facilities—such as the National Security headquarters in Sana’a—were destroyed in airstrikes in 2015, but this did not stop the creation of new secret detention sites.
Legal Context
SAM stressed that these practices constitute a clear violation of the Yemeni Constitution, which guarantees personal freedom and prohibits arrest, detention, or search without a judicial order under Article 48. They also breach the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Yemen, which prohibits arbitrary detention (Article 9), guarantees the right to a fair trial (Article 14), and upholds freedom of expression (Article 19). Torture in Yemeni detention facilities violates the Convention Against Torture (1984), while enforced disappearance is prohibited by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (2006). These crimes fall under the jurisdiction of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which classifies torture and enforced disappearance as crimes against humanity.
Human Impact
SAM noted that arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance cause severe and lasting harm to victims and their families. Families of the disappeared live in constant anguish, trapped between hope and despair, deprived of their basic right to know the fate of their loved ones. Many households suffer extreme financial hardship due to the loss of their sole breadwinner, while children grow up without parental care, facing an uncertain future. These psychological, social, and economic consequences amount to collective punishment against Yemeni society as a whole.
Call to Action
SAM calls for urgent and concrete measures to end arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in Yemen, beginning with the immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of all missing persons, their unconditional release, and the closure of secret prisons that have become epicenters of abuse. The organization stressed the importance of placing all detention facilities under effective judicial oversight and guaranteeing detainees full legal rights, including access to family and legal counsel, medical care, and humane conditions.
SAM also urged the international community to exert serious pressure on all conflict parties to halt these violations, prosecute those responsible, and ensure victims and their families receive justice, reparation, and psychological and social rehabilitation—reinforcing the principle of accountability and restoring dignity to victims.