Houthi authorities arrested dozens of people in the last week of September 2024 for peacefully celebrating or posting on social media about the anniversary of Yemen's "September 26 Revolution," Human Rights Watch and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights (CIHRS) said today. The September 26 Revolution marks the establishment of the Yemen Arabic Republic in 1962. The Houthis, who control Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, believe that September 21, the day in which they took over Sanaa, should be celebrated in its place.
The Houthis have not brought charges against many of the protesters, amounting to arbitrary detention. The Houthis should immediately release all those who were detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of assembly and speech, as well as all those who remain in arbitrary detention, including the dozens of UN and civil society staff arrested and disappeared over the last four months.
"The crackdown on protests and any activities that diverge from Houthi beliefs and ideologies is yet another violation in the extensive record of human rights abuses they have committed in Yemen with total impunity," said Amna Guellali, research director at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights.
Starting around September 21, the Houthis began arresting dozens of people in Sanaa, Amran, Dhamar, Ibb, Hodeidah, Al-Mahwit, Taizz, Al-Bayda, Al-Dhalea, and Hajjah governorates in relation to the protests. Such arrests and the banning of all demonstrations appear to seek to prevent collective mobilization that could challenge their rule. One journalist that CIHRS interviewed said at least 209 people were arrested in Amran governorate alone, including children and elderly people, "some of whom are over 75 years old." According to the Abductees Mothers Association, a Yemeni victims' association, "a significant number of those detained are children and teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19."
CIHRS and Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 people, including family members and other close contacts of some of those detained, as well as a lawyer, about the nature of the arrests. Human Rights Watch also analyzed three videos shared on X (formerly Twitter) showing intimidation and threats related to the protests.
Across the cases that CIHRS and Human Rights Watch documented, the Houthis had not brought charges against the people detained. A man from Ibb stated that after several of his family members were arrested he contacted a Houthi official to ask why they were being held, the official said that his relatives were disturbing public security and directives. But the man said he believed that the Houthis "are making up these charges to arrest people."
In many cases, the Houthis arrested people for wearing or waving a Yemeni flag, or for having a Yemeni flag on their car. One man interviewed said that two of his cousins were arrested and that, "[T]hey didn't celebrate or do anything, they just had the [Yemeni] flag on their car, they told us you are celebrating Sep[tember] 26 but not Sep[tember] 21 and took us to prison." The man from Ibb said that "the Houthis threatened anyone celebrating the revolution or raising Yemeni flags."
In other cases, the Houthis arrested people for social media posts or other online publications commemorating the revolution. One man, whose brother was arrested, said that his brother posted a video celebrating the revolution on September 26, and that five Houthi military vehicles showed up to his brother's home the next day. The Houthis told his brother, who he described as an activist and writer who posts about social issues on social media, that they wanted him to delete his YouTube channel and his last post about September 26. "They took him to the Criminal Investigation Department and when they started releasing detainees on September 30, we learned that they sent him to the Intelligence and Security Department and [is] yet to be released," his brother said.
A writer in Sanaa with a large social media following was also arrested after posting about September 26. A friend of his said that the Houthis arrived to his home in several military vehicles: "They stormed the house, broke the doors, and scared his wife and son … [T]hey took him, his devices, laptop, phones, old cameras, they searched the whole house."
The Houthis did not present an arrest warrant or a search warrant in either case, in violation of both Yemeni law and international law.
Others said that the Houthis had threatened or intimidated them to keep them from posting anything about the September 26 Revolution. Abdul Majeed Sabra, a lawyer in Sanaa said that after he posted on social media that he would provide legal services to lawyers who had been detained in relation to September 26, Houthi members "directly threatened" him. "I follow up on the arrest cases via phone from the office or home by communicating with some relatives of those we know only and not officially because going out and following up with the security authorities means arrest. They are waiting for any pretext or reason."
Another woman said that she had received a phone call threatening her because of her posts on social media in commemoration of the September 26 Revolution. "I never felt afraid of [the Houthis], but the frustration is that I can't go out to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution and I can't raise the flag of the Republic of Yemen and go out with my daughter and celebrate," she said. "I feel frustrated that the Yemeni flag is not present in the streets of Sanaa on the anniversary of the revolution and I used to cry every day."
Arresting a person without a warrant and clear charges is a violation under article 132 of the Yemeni Criminal Procedures law. Detaining a person without a basis in domestic or international law, as well as detaining them without promptly charging them, are violations of international human rights law. In their 2023 report, the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen stated that they had documented many cases involving arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture in Yemen, adding that "most violations investigated by the Panel were attributed to the Houthis."
In prior years, the Houthis have also detained hundreds of protesters commemorating the September 26 Revolution. In 2023, Sabra, the lawyer in Sanaa, posted that the Houthis had arrested approximately 1,000 people in relation to the anniversary of the revolution. The SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, a Yemeni human rights organization, found that the Houthis had used excessive force against those peacefully protesting and celebrating.
Houthi authorities have also arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of United Nations and civil society staff since May 31, with informed sources telling Human Rights Watch that the number of those detained continues to grow.
"The Houthis continue to call for the international community to respect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza, while simultaneously violating the rights of the people living in the territories they control," said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. "They should show the Yemeni people the same respect that they demand for Palestinians, starting by ending this endless campaign of arbitrary arrests."
