A/HRC/42/CRP.1
against such violence afforded by the criminal justice system has collapsed further in 2019.
Some law enforcement actors, armed forces and armed groups pose a direct threat to
women’s security, and the parties actively obstructed protection networks in key areas.
617. This situation has had severe short-term consequences on the fundamental rights of
women, girls, boys and men, particularly on those struggling with multiple intersecting
forms of discrimination and vulnerabilities. These rights include the rights to life, survival
and development; protection from violence, injury and abuse, including sexual violence;
liberty and security of person; and the rights to health, food and education. Such rights are
guaranteed under international human rights law, including the Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to which Yemen
and all members of the coalition except Sudan are parties. Moreover, violations of these
rights are likely to have a long-term legacy of entrenching inequality, discrimination, and
gender-based violence. Protections are also to be found under international humanitarian
law, including customary international law.
2.
The status of women and girls in Yemen
618. Prior to the conflict, women and girls were already living in an impoverished and
unequal society. Yemen ranks worst in the world out of all countries in the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) Gender Inequality Index and the WEF Global Gender Gap
Index, composite measures of women and girls’ rights to health and education, economic
and political participation, and protection from gender-based violence.947 The UNDP
Human Development Index (HDI) shows that Yemen is one of the most extremely
impoverished countries in the world. Disaggregated for gender, it shows the differences
between men and women to be the most unequal of any country, and furthermore that the
impact of the war on the life expectancy, education and standard of living for women is
almost twice as much as that for men.948 International Labour Organisation (ILO) surveys
from 2014 show that only 6 per cent of women versus 65 per cent of men were participating
in the labour workforce, mainly in agriculture and were paid significantly less, with many
other women in rural areas involved in subsistence farming and food preparation and
playing a key role in nutrition.949
619. Yemeni statutory law reinforces the subordinate role of women and girls in the
society. The Personal Status Law of 1992 provides that male relatives have guardianship
(“Wilaya”) rights over a woman for the entirety of her life. It also provides that a husband
is the legal head of the household, and has the right to be obeyed by his wife; that he should
always have ‘access’ to her and she permits him to have intercourse with her; and that she
refrain from disobedience, and that her primary role in society is in household work.
Women should only travel outside the home for ‘legitimate reasons’ such as domestic and
caregiver responsibilities, and with a ‘mahram,’950 or male guardian, accompanying her.
Polygamy for men of up to four wives is legalised, there is no minimum age for marriage,
fathers are the only legal guardians of children, and rights of divorce for women are
limited.951 The Penal Code provides that the testimony of women is worth half that of men;
men receive reduced sentences for murdering female relatives if motivated by restoring
‘honour’; ‘immorality’ such as movement without a male guardian or association with men
947
United Nations, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Global Inequality Index, 2019.
World Economic Forum “The Global Gender Gap Report”, 2018.
948 UNDP Assessing the Impact of the War on Development in Yemen, 2019, Page 26, 41-42. UNDP,
Human Development Index, available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-indexhdi.
949 United Nations, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Yemen Labour Force Survey, 2014.
CARE “Rapid Gender Analysis of Yemen”, 2015.
950 A male relative with whom marriage and sexual intercourse is forbidden by Sharia law; the term
also refers to a woman’s husband.
951 Personal Status Law of Yemen, 1992. UNDP “Yemen: Laws, policies and practices on Gender
Justice”, 2018. Douaa Hussein, The American University Cairo “Legal Reform as a way to Women’s
Rights: The Case of Personal Status Law in Yemen”, 2011.
148
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