Mayyun Organization calls on Yemenis to protect their children from the danger of summer camps

With great concern, Mayyun Organization for Human Rights followed the statements of the leader of the Houthi group on Saturday, April 20, 2024, in which he announced the inauguration of summer centers for male and female school students in the governorates and regions under his group’s control, which is a systematic policy that the Houthi group has been following since its control of the capital, Sana’a, in September 2014.

Summer centers (closed and open) represent an appropriate environment for ideological mobilization and recruitment, where children receive training on the use of weapons and intensive cultural courses, representing a flagrant violation of the right to a safe childhood.

Through our human rights work over the past years, we confirm that the Houthi group deals with school students (and Yemeni children in general) as a constant source and supplier for supplying fighters. The group’s media channels often publish news about batches of children who have graduated from military courses and summer centers, and broadcast popular shows. Armed for recruits.

Mayyun Organization for Human Rights sees the Houthi group’s insistence on establishing centers and summer camps as an indication of its continued recruitment of children, in violation of all commitments and pledges, the most recent of which was the “Action Plan” agreement on stopping the recruitment of children signed with the United Nations in 2022.

While the organization denounces the rampant violations of children’s rights in Yemen, it:

1- It calls on all parents to keep their children safe and not to involve themselves in activities that make them vulnerable to violations.
2- Calls on civil society organizations to continue monitoring and documenting grave violations against children.

3- Renews the call on the international community to take firm measures and impose sanctions on all those involved in human rights violations of children, especially the six grave violations.

Issued by Mayyun Organization for Human Rights
April 23, 2024