A rights alliance reveals the ways in which Houthi militias deal with the teachers’ crisis
Ten human rights organizations affiliated with the “Yemen Justice Pact” alliance have called on the Houthi terrorist group to immediately respond to the demands of Yemeni teachers in areas under its control. These demands include regularly paying their salaries, clearing the backlog of payments, and ceasing intimidation, as well as ending the arrests of teachers involved in the strike.
In a joint statement issued the day before yesterday on the occasion of the International Day for the Protection of Education from Attacks, which falls on September 9th of each year, the organizations stated, “We renew our call to the Houthi group to promptly respond to the legitimate demands of Yemeni teachers in areas under its control by regularly disbursing their salaries and clearing the outstanding dues from the resources they acquire,” according to Yemen Future website.
The statement also mentioned that the “Yemeni Teachers Club,” a nascent trade union coalition, expressed regret in its statement for the unrecognized Houthi government’s neglect of the suffering of educators, while it disburses substantial amounts of money monthly to the political council, ministers, deputies, and the Shura Council, among others.
The alliance pointed out that the Houthi group is responding to the legitimate demands of teachers with intimidation and arrest campaigns. They have arrested several teachers and leveled accusations of “treason” and “serving the enemy” against those demanding their salaries. The head of the Houthi ruling council, Mehdi al-Mashat, described the salary claimants as “fools” in a televised speech and claimed that they were serving the enemy, according to the statement.
The rights alliance called on the Houthi group to cease using security and intimidation methods against civil action, including threats and warnings against striking teachers, halt the arrest campaigns targeting them, immediately release the detained teachers, and ensure the allocation of resources they acquire for delivering teachers’ salaries and improving the educational process in their controlled areas.
The statement clarified that the issue of public sector employees’ salaries has been raised in peace talks between the conflict parties in Yemen. The UN envoy Hans Grundberg mentioned in a briefing to the Security Council in mid-August last year that his office continues to explore options with the conflict parties to ensure the regular payment of public sector employees’ salaries across the country.
