Review of the fifth periodic report of Yemen

1.9.2Dire Detention Conditions

Detention conditions in Yemeni prisons and other places of detention are appalling in every respect: unhygienic with poor sanitation, overcrowding, lack of medical care, insufficient food, which have worsened dramatically since the beginning of the uprising. All these factors create difficult conditions bordering on inhuman and degrading treatment, especially in cases of incommunicado detentions. Former detainees testify that the worst conditions are in the Sana’a centres of National Security, Political Security, Criminal Investigation, the Al Sawad barracks of the Republican Guards and the Special Forces’ Al Sabaha’s barracks. In addition, lawyers do not have access to these places of detention. Since the outbreak of the uprising, there has been little supervision of what goes inside places of detention by the central authorities, and it seems that detaining authorities have been given free rein to do as they please.

The authorities categorically refuse to grant permission to visit places of detention under the control of the security and military forces to the judicial authorities or civil society. There is therefore no judicial oversight of these places of detention. On paper, civil society generally has access to central prisons and police stations, and visits have been possible on some occasions. However, authorities continue to deny some visits: for example, in 2008, the Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights obtained no visiting permits, except for Hajjah prison. In 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended its visits to prisons, citing the failure to agree to the ICRC's universally applied manner of conducting visits, which includes regular access to, and private interviews with, all detainees. In July 2010, and after an interruption of several years, the ICRC resumed its prisons visits in Yemen, “to assess [detainees’] conditions of detention and [...] treatment [of detainees].”¹²³

Between January and March 2007, the Parliamentary Committee on Civil Liberties and Human Rights conducted a series of visits in central prisons, detention centers and temporary places of detention in the provinces of Ibb, Dhamar and Al-Bayda. It released its report 16 June 2008.¹²⁴ In particular, the Committee noted overcrowding, the presence of a dozen young children in prison with their mothers, and adolescents aged between 15 and 18 detained with adults.

As for physical conditions, it noted that there was insufficient food, and that prison budgets had been reduced for 2006 compared with previous years, in spite of price increases. The amount of water available to inmates was insufficient; there was a lack of medicine and care, and training for inmates was inadequate, as was the number of staff and security guards.

On the legal front, the Committee noted that prisoners were held beyond the term of their sentence; some were imprisoned for years without trial.

In the Attorney General’s detention centres, the Committee found overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, and excessive delays in proceedings. It has also received numerous complaints of abuse during interrogations.

The National Forum for Human Rights (NFHR), a Yemeni NGO which was permitted to visit some of Hodeida Governorate’s prisons and detention centres in March 2010, described how overcrowded the detention facilities were. For example, the NFHR found that the Hodeida Central Prison housed 1,500 prisoners, despite it having being built to house only 350 inmates. According to the organization about 160 were being detained illegally. It also gave an alarming account of the lack of food and water in prisons and the unsanitary conditions, having to share 70 uniforms that they wear in turn when they are transported to court. Many of those who were detained or imprisoned were tortured according to the NFHR.¹²⁵ The report notably focused on female prisoners who were vulnerable to rape and other types of violence.¹²⁶