Yemeni Children: Escalating Violations and Gaps in Protection Mechanisms

A report by the Yemen Children Platform

Childhood in Yemen is facing a critical reality marked by numerous challenges and shocking details, amid a conflict that has persisted for more than a decade. During this time, children have been subjected to various forms of violations, deprivation, and suffering, compounded by serious shortcomings in protection mechanisms and programs.

This was recently revealed by an in-depth study issued by the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations, titled “Transitional Justice and Violations of Children’s Rights in Yemen.” The study affirmed that Yemeni children are the most affected group in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis resulting from the ongoing conflict in the country.

This report reviews the key findings of the study, which was based on legal analysis and field research involving victims, experts, and representatives of political parties.

Yemeni Children

A Deadly Gap

The study sounds the alarm over a “deadly gap” between legal obligations and the actual protection of children on the ground. It stresses that any future peace will not succeed without integrating children’s issues into the transitional justice process, noting that “doing justice to childhood is a prerequisite for building a just peace and a stable future.” This requires the international community and local actors to assume their historical responsibilities toward a generation paying a heavy price for a conflict in which it had no role.

Structural Failures Entrenching Impunity

The study confirms that the legal and institutional framework for child protection in Yemen suffers from structural deficiencies. Despite Yemen’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, effective implementation remains weak.

More than two-thirds of study participants (73.3%) believe that the current legal framework does not provide even the minimum level of protection, indicating serious legislative gaps. These include the absence of an explicit and clear criminalization of recruiting children under the age of fifteen, and the disproportionate penalties for crimes such as violence and sexual exploitation compared to the gravity of these offenses. This contributes to a climate of impunity, which 96.9% of participants identified as a main reason for the continuation of violations.

The study also noted that inconsistencies in legal provisions related to juvenile criminal responsibility hinder the administration of justice. Legal analysis shows that these gaps, combined with the lack of institutional coordination (80%) and the paralysis of parliament, have made protection plans “hostage” to donor funding, weakening their independence and effectiveness

A Fragile Childhood

The study explains that violations against children in Yemen take multiple forms and vary geographically and politically, yet they all share a direct targeting of childhood. Forced recruitment tops the list of the most widespread patterns, cited by 88.7% of participants, and is particularly concentrated among male children in areas under Houthi control.

These violations are followed by killings and direct injuries affecting 61.7% of affected children, especially in areas of clashes and indiscriminate shelling.

The study further revealed that sexual violence affected 51% of impacted children, with girls being the most affected group in this category of grave violations. This is in addition to child abductions (51.4%) and deprivation of humanitarian assistance, particularly in remote areas or regions under shifting control (35.3%).

Violations also included attacks on schools and hospitals (50%). According to the study, all these violations fuel a vicious cycle of violence and trauma. Participants indicated that girls are the most affected by grave violations, followed by children with disabilities, and then displaced and marginalized children.

According to the study, this disparity reveals that factors such as gender and geographic location increase a child’s vulnerability to conflict.

Future Impacts

The study states that the long-term effects go beyond the immediate physical harm caused by violations, posing an existential threat to the future of an entire generation. It documented impacts in both the short and long term, with psychological difficulties topping the list, followed by physical effects in the short term, and the loss of educational and employment opportunities in the long term.

The study anticipates that disrupted relationships and social isolation increase the risk of renewed involvement in violence in the future. These impacts—particularly chronic psychological distress—underscore the urgent need for intensive psychosocial support and effective reintegration programs to break the cycle of violence.

---

A Last Chance to Do Justice to Childhood

The study concluded that the success of any transitional justice process in Yemen depends on its ability to integrate children’s issues. It noted that political positions on transitional justice are “divided,” with some emphasizing documentation and reparations, while the inclusion of children’s issues in reconciliation agendas and political settlements remains contested.

Accordingly, the study argues that transitional justice must be child-friendly. It recommends that the Yemeni government undertake urgent legislative reforms to explicitly criminalize child recruitment and review the prescribed penalties. It also calls for the establishment of independent and effective accountability mechanisms, with guarantees of financial and administrative independence and the protection of witnesses and victims, as well as the provision of psychosocial support services and reintegration programs that take into account the most vulnerable groups—especially girls and children with disabilities.

#Transitional_Justice