A/HRC/42/CRP.1 658. Survivors also told the Group how they had been unable to access psychosocial support.1017 One survivor reported that he was unable to do so due to the absence of malespecific sexual violence services.1018 With the consent of survivors, the Group was able to refer 11 survivors for psychosocial support. Some survivors called for financial reparations, noting that whilst it could never fully compensate them it would go some way towards helping them rebuild their and their family’s lives.1019 6. Impact on political participation 659. Yemen has a strong tradition of women activists and leaders at all levels of society. Realising their full participation as agents of justice and change is key to achieving justice for all and preventing future conflicts.1020 The Group received reports from women activists and leaders recognising that the establishment of the Women’s Advisory Group (WAG) to the UN-led Peace Process was an important step in a process that continues to be dominated by men, but that it plays an advisory role only.1021 660. Counter to the overall trend of oppression of women rights defenders and the shrinking space for political participation, and despite the conflicting parties, some women have managed to seize limited but crucial spaces for political participation. Women have taken the lead in mediating hundreds of detention releases at a local and strategic level where the conflicting parties have failed to do so.1022 Women-led solidarity groups, community based networks and local NGOs at a grassroots level are playing key conflict mediation, protection and humanitarian roles.1023 661. Prior to the conflict, in 2011-2014, women and girls led demands for progressive societal change for all Yemenis. Women participated in the NDC and in direct negotiation with those who sought to maintain discriminatory customs. They were crucial to a more inclusive draft 2015 Constitution that overturned parts of the Personal Status Law, codified equal rights, and imposed a minimum age for marriage and 30 per cent quota for women in government. These provisions remain unimplemented by the parties to the conflict. 1024 In 2019 one witness who was also an NDC participant reported to the Group the following. “Now I see it was inevitable that at some point the Houthis or someone else would have intervened. What should have happened at the time was a gendered solution to the conflict. For any future peace to be sustainable we need to overturn the endemic 'gender-power imbalance' to bring about lasting peace.” NDC participant1025 7. Conclusions 662. In addition to the Group’s findings in specific cases of gender-based violence elsewhere in this report, the Group finds that the Government of Yemen, members of the coalition, and the de facto authorities are responsible for violations of international human rights law. There are reasonable grounds to believe that the parties have violated and failed to respect, protect and fulfil women and girls’ rights contrary to Articles 1-3, 5, 8, 13-16 of CEDAW. This includes the failure to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, failure to prosecute gender-based violence, and failure to protect women’s rights defenders. 1017 Ibid. Confidential Sources on File. 1019 Confidential Sources on File. 1020 Confidential Sources on File. IPTI 2018; UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Oxfam, International Alert (IA), “Research on Gender Justice, Conflict and fragility in MENA”, 2017, Page 102-104. Saferworld “Women Nowadays Do Anything”, 2017, page 14. 1021 Confidential Sources on File. 1022 Confidential Sources on File. 1023 Confidential Sources on File. FCO-Oxfam-IA 2017 Page 102-104. Saferworld 2017. 1024 Confidential Sources on File. Afrah Nasser, “In Yemen Women Bear the Brunt”, al-Araby, March 2018. Finn 2015. IPTI 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/middleeast/yemen-trials-ofspring.html. 1025 Confidential Sources on File. 1018 158