WILPF Recommendations for Yemen's UPR

According to the Global Gender Report 2012, Yemen has one of the highest gender inequality rates in the world. Yemen has several laws and practices that discriminate against women, perpetuate gender inequality, and facilitate violence. In order to increase and enhance women's role in public and political sectors, WILPF Human Rights Programme and the Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC) made a series of recommendations for Yemen's second Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

First, we stress the importance of increasing women's participation in all mechanisms of governance, justice, and peace, along with designing a comprehensive and inclusive National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. Second, we recommend reforming the school curriculum to include information about gender equality and human rights awareness, and increasing budget allocations to allow improvement of education and health services to uphold Yemen's obligations under CEDAW. Finally, we recommend ensuring effective multisectoral services to address gender based violence: this should include ensuring the full range of medical, legal, psychosocial and livelihood services to victims of rape without discrimination; providing reparation for crimes of sexual violence; protecting the privacy and security of women who file reports and testify about sexual and gender-based violence; repealing the Impunity Law promulgated in January 2012 and reexamining Article 232 of the Penal Code which provides soft punishment for honor killings; and ensuring that no individual is immune from prosecution for human rights violations. Throughout, concrete national policy and practice should be developed to in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law.