Over the past five months, human rights defender and head of Al-Faisal Organization,  an organization that campaigns against detention, torture and enforced disappearance, Alia’a Al-Shabi, has been subjected to a prolonged campaign of harassment, threats, and intimidation.

Alia’a Al-Shabi is a human rights defender who, in her work with Al-Faisal, highlights, cases of arbitrary arrest, torture, and enforced disappearance.

Pictures of Alia’a Al-Shabi have been burned by angry local citizens in her hometown, the southern city of Aden, to protest against her participation in the National Dialogue Conference, which held its first meeting in Sana’a on 18 March 2012. She continued during this conference to focus, among other issues, on cases of those who were forcibly disappeared and talk about them with the concerned authorities. She has received serious threats through phone calls and text messages asking her to stop working for human rights. Nevertheless she has continued her work in the field of human rights and as president of the Al-Faisal Organization.

On 18 October, 2013 a member of the Yemeni Socialist Party, Mohammed Al-Awlaki published a threatening letter on his Facebook page directed at Alia’a Al-Shabi which included this sentence “you dig your grave by yourself.” Reports indicate that this threat is associated with her appointment as a vice chairman of the committee to care for the families of the martyrs.

The GCHR believes that the campaign of intimidation, threats, and harassment against Alia’s Al-Shabi are directly related to her peaceful and legitimate activities in defence of human rights, in particular the rights of  torture survivors and enforced disappearance. The GCHR is concerned for the physical and psychological integrity and security of Alia’a Al-Shabi, particularly in the light of the recent reports of threats made against her.

The GCHR urges the authorities in Yemen to: 

1. Carry out an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation into the campaign of intimidation, threats, and harassment against Alia’a Al-Shabi with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in line with local laws and international standards;

2. Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Alia’a Al-Shabi;

3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders and journalists in Yemen are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free from all restrictions including judicial harassment.

The GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognizes the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to article 5 (a): “For the purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, at the national and international levels to meet or assemble peacefully”, and to  Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”