The US is failing Yemenis

After two years without the sounds of airstrikes, Yemenis in Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen have spent the last month waking up to the sounds of U.S. and U.K. fighter jets conducting more than 100 strikes against Houthi targets. And yet the U.S. and U.K.’s silence on justice and accountability for Yemenis remains deafening.

Since 2002, the U.S. military has been carrying out targeted attacks in Yemen that have caused significant civilian harm, and no one has been held to account for these actions. The U.S. and U.K. have armed and supported a Middle East coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who carried out years of air strikes against the Houthi rebels controlling part of the country on behalf of a government in exile. These airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians. Both the U.S. and the U.K. could be complicit in possible war crimes committed by the Saudi and UAE-led coalition.

The United Nations has stated that the resulting humanitarian crisis in Yemen is the worst in the world.

The U.S. and U.K. have stated that their goal of the current strikes is to protect international shipping from the Houthis’ unlawful attacks upon ships. These in turn were launched in the name of protecting the Palestinians from Israeli attacks.

But the Houthis have continued striking ships even after these strikes. President Biden himself has admitted the ineffectiveness of the strikes in Yemen. “Are they stopping the Houthis? No. … Are they going to continue? Yes,” he said a few weeks ago, in response to a reporter.

The strikes have highlighted the persistent and failed U.S. and U.K. policy in the region. Bombing has been prioritized over long-term support for meting out justice to Yemenis for alleged war crimes.

If the U.S. and U.K. want any chance at changing course on their failed strategy in the Middle East, they need to reverse their current approach and create a policy that prioritizes justice both in Yemen and in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The U.S. and U.K. should demonstrate a respect for accountability, international law, and human rights principles that does not only serve their short-sighted interests — both in Yemen and in Israel — and choose to support civilian calls for justice.

Despite all of the evidence of U.S. and U.K. complicity in violations of international law in Yemen that have been compiled by Yemeni civil society organizations, the U.N. Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, other U.N. bodies, and international nongovernmental organizations, the U.S. has failed to ensure accountability for its actions, and even obstructed investigations into its weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

The warring parties in Yemen have committed widespread violations against civilians, with no repercussions. And yet the U.S. and U.K. have failed to support Yemeni civil society’s broader calls for an international independent mechanism to investigate the violations committed throughout the conflict after their partners in the conflict — Saudi Arabia and the UAE — aggressively lobbied to end the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts in Yemen at the United Nations Human Rights Council. 

The U.S. and U.K.’s continued impunity and lack of support for accountability and justice in Yemen have also contributed to the lack of any mention of transitional justice in ongoing ceasefire negotiations between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. Even with these limitations, the renewed strikes are jeopardizing the limited possibility of peace that ceasefire negotiations might bring.

“A few days ago, we heard news about a truce,” Aseel Ehab, a Yemeni cultural activist, told us. “It was like a dream. And now this news comes again, bringing back years that we hoped would never come back.”

While protecting international shipping is important, the U.S. and U.K.’s choice to prioritize the protection of shipping while ignoring accountability and justice processes in Yemen, and while refusing to criticize Israeli violations, demonstrates a short-sighted and selective approach to their application of international law and human rights that will undermine stability in the region.

Despite their widespread abuses against civilians in Yemen, many Yemenis say they see the Houthis as the singular actor standing up for Palestinians, in contrast to the U.S. and the U.K., who continue to send arms and aid to Israel as it levels Gaza.

The continued prioritization of airstrikes instead of policies that promote accountability and justice will backfire on U.S. interests in the region. It has already provided and will provide actors such as the Houthis the chance to whitewash their own extensive human rights abuses. The Biden administration has a choice: Rather than repeating the same mistakes as previous administrations, it can start abiding by the international human rights principles it purports to uphold.

Bonyan Jamal is a lawyer and activist in Sana’a, and Niku Jafarnia is the Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch.