Houthi Torture Networks Target Women… Rights Organizations Sound the Alarm

A series of reports issued by human rights and women’s organizations have exposed systematic crimes and widespread violations committed by Houthi militias against women in Yemen, from the start of the war up to early 2025.

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• Ongoing Houthi Violations Against Women in Yemen: What Do the Latest Statistics Say?

Organizations such as the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms, the Women’s Coalition for Peace, and Rights Radar have documented a rising pattern of abuses, including direct killings, abductions, torture, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances, amid what some reports have described as a “shameful” international silence.

According to a report by the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms, 1,456 women were killed by indiscriminate shelling, landmines, sniper fire, and live ammunition, while 2,379 others were injured to varying degrees between January 2021 and January 2025. The same report documented 447 cases of abduction, enforced disappearance, and torture of women in areas under Houthi control.

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The network described these violations as war crimes and crimes against humanity, urging the international community, United Nations agencies, and organizations dedicated to the protection of women and children to act immediately to condemn these abuses, hold perpetrators accountable, and allow international investigative teams access to document and halt the crimes.

Meanwhile, the Women’s Coalition for Peace warned of the continued detention of hundreds of women in both secret and official prisons operated by the militias, describing these facilities as “black spots” on Yemen’s human rights record. The report highlighted horrific torture practices against women, including beatings, burning, electric shocks, sexual violence, and denial of food and healthcare.

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Rights Radar, based in The Hague, documented 1,781 cases of torture and ill-treatment in illegal detention centers, including 31 women and 61 children, and confirmed the deaths of 324 detainees due to torture or medical neglect, most of them in Houthi-run prisons.

The organization identified around 25,600 detainees held in 727 detention sites across 18 Yemeni provinces, with Sanaa topping the list of violations, followed by Hodeidah and Ibb. It held the Houthis responsible for over 1,600 direct violations and stated that the group continues to forcibly disappear hundreds of detainees, including women.

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In light of these findings, the three organizations called for the Houthis to be listed among groups involved in systematic crimes against women, urged immediate UN intervention to open closed prisons to investigative committees, provide humanitarian, medical, and psychological support to victims, and put an end to the international silence surrounding one of the most egregious crimes committed against women in conflict zones.

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