As of today, 23 UN and five international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) personnel remain arbitrarily detained. Tragically, one UN staff member and another from Save the Children have died in detention. Others have lost loved ones while being held, denied the chance to attend their funerals or say goodbye. Our arbitrarily detained colleagues have spent at least 365 days – and for some, over 1000 days – isolated from their families, children, husbands, and wives, in flagrant breach of international law. The toll of this detention is also weighing heavily on their families, who continue to endure the unbearable pain of absence and uncertainty as they face another Eid without their loved one.
Yemen remains one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with over 19 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, many of whom rely on it for survival. A safe and enabling operating environment for humanitarian operations, including the release of detained personnel, is essential to maintaining and restoring assistance to those in need. Humanitarian workers should never be targeted or detained while carrying out their mandates to serve the people of Yemen.
We acknowledge the release of one UN and two NGO personnel and the recent release of an Embassy staff member. We call on the de facto authorities to deliver on their previous commitments, including those made to the Director-General of the World Health Organization during his mission to Sana'a in December 2024.
Signatories:
Achim Steiner, Administrator, UNDP Amitabh Behar, OXFAM International Executive Director Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive DirectorCindy McCain, WFP Executive Director Hans Grundberg, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children International Michelle Nunn, President and CEO, CARE Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Read More Details
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