Unparalleled rights violations and abuses against journalists are being carried out by all parties to the armed conflict in Yemen, the UN human rights chief said.
The high number of rights violations against journalists across the war-torn country include killings, disappearances, and death sentences in violation of international human rights law.
Since just the start of April, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has documented an assassination and an abduction, three cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the sentencing of four journalists to death – in violation of international human rights law – and the jailing of six others, three physical assaults, and threats of physical violence.
The situation is sliding “from bad to worse”, the UN rights chief said, adding that reeling from years of fighting between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels for control of the Arab nation, Yemen is still considered the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
“Journalists are under attack from all quarters”, said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
“Those responsible for reporting on the atrocities committed during the armed conflict and the accompanying pain and suffering endured by civilians, are themselves being targeted”, she pointed out.
Since the start of the conflict in March 2015, OHCHR has documented 357 human rights violations and abuses against journalists, including 28 killings, two enforced disappearances, one abduction, 45 physical assaults; and 184 arbitrary arrests and detentions.
There have been 16 deaths or threats of physical violence against journalists, 24 seizures of media organizations, 26 closures of TV channels and newspaper companies; 27 attacks on media organizations and journalists’ homes, and four death sentences imposed on journalists, in violation of international human rights law.
“The safety of journalists is essential to the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of us all, and in the context of armed conflict they play a vital role in uncovering the truth and holding the parties to the conflict to account publicly”, Ms. Bachelet said, calling on all involved in the fighting to “release detained journalists, and to investigate and punish those responsible for attacks and threats against journalists”.
The High Commissioner underscored that journalists are also protected under international humanitarian law as civilians and that attacks against them “may amount to war crimes”.
Original source: UN News
Published on 6 August 2020
