A/HRC/45/CRP.7 be investigated, of violations perpetrated by Security Belt forces against refugees and migrants based on the grounds of their SOGI.327 Other findings 222. The Group received reports, including from two survivors, of abusive and violent practices used by health providers328 in order to “cure” homosexuality and transgender persons, including electroconvulsive therapy and force-feeding drugs and hormones. The Group was not able to confirm whether such so-called “conversion therapies” were occurring prior to the conflict. This requires further investigation.329 (d) Sexual Violence against men and boys in Detention 223. The Group of Experts continued to verify cases involving parties to the conflict using sexual violence in detention, to torture and humiliate detainees. In addition to the violations enumerated elsewhere in this section, in 2020 the Group has verified cases of sexual violence in detention against 19 men and boys by several parties during 2016-2020. 224. De facto authority interrogators at Al-Saleh City Prison, Ta‘izz, perpetrated sexual violence against eight men on multiple occasions, consisting of electrocution of men’s genitals under threats of sterilisation, and beating and hanging objects from them. Detainees were normally blindfolded, handcuffed and had their clothes removed. They were threatened or informed that their genitals would be damaged or destroyed. A generator (or similar device) was then switched on, and live cables applied to the detainees’ testicles or penis repeatedly for short periods with intervals of up to three hours, after which their interrogation continued.330 225. Interrogators and guards at the Government of Yemen’s Ma’rib Political Security Prison perpetrated sexual violence against nine men and two boys on multiple occasions. This consisted of beating and electrocution of detainees’ genitals, brushing them with a broomstick, and burning detainees’ penises. In two cases, interrogators told detainees that they were going to “be like their wife” and that they were going to prevent them from ever having intercourse again, before conducting these acts. In one such case, they stripped a 16year-old boy naked and suspended him from the ceiling by his hands. For an hour, they beat his genitals with a metal bar and electric cables, pausing only to continue their interrogation and their orders to him to confess.331 226. The Group of Experts continued to investigate arbitrary detention and torture including sexual violence against men and boys, perpetrated by members of the United Arab Emirates forces at the secret detention facility in al-Bureiqa coalition Base, Aden, prior to their withdrawal in mid-2019.332 The Group verified two further cases, in which personnel raped one man and subjected one boy to another form of sexual violence. Considered together with the violations verified in the Group’s 2018 and 2019 reports, the Group has now verified the cases of 14 rapes and other forms of sexual violence committed by personnel at this facility against men and boys.333 The Group verified that in July 2019, a member of the Government of Yemen armed forces at another facility twice raped a man detained by these forces for his work as a human rights defender documenting alleged violations by coalition forces. 227. In all cases described above, perpetrators used sexual violence purposefully as a means of torture in conjunction with other violence to humiliate detainees and coerce them to make confessions. Rape and other forms of sexual violence for perpetrators are primarily a means of gaining power and control. Interrogators and guards used these methods to dehumanise, “dishonour” and “emasculate” men and boys. 327 Confidential sources on file. Hospital name and location are witheld due to protection concerns. 329 Confidential sources on file. 330 For more details on the Group’s investigation on sexual violence, see also Ta‘izz Detention section. 331 For more details on the Group’s on sexual violence here see Ma’rib Detention section. 332 See A/HRC/42/CRP.1 paras. 224, 225, and 228. 333 A/HRC/42/CRP.1 para. 646. 328 61