The Yemeni Center: Incomplete Exchange Agreements Entrench Impunity and Legitimize Violations

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) has followed the news regarding an agreement to release approximately 1,750 detainees from various parties, most of whom are Houthi snipers and killers.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture, while monitoring and welcoming any step that alleviates the suffering of thousands of bereaved families, welcomes any breakthrough that leads to the release of abductees and detainees and their return to their families. It considers the exit of any abductee from the darkness of the dungeons to be a victory for humanitarian values.

However, the Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) affirms that what truly matters always lies in full and transparent implementation, away from selectivity or politicization.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) also expresses its deep disappointment and regret over the continuation of the policy of ambiguity and the failure to disclose the fate of hundreds of forcibly disappeared persons whose fate remains unknown up to this moment, alongside the continued presence of thousands of abductees in notorious Houthi detention centers.

Bypassing the file of the forcibly disappeared in negotiation rounds, or making it a subject of political bargaining, is a stab in the side of justice and international conventions. We hold the legitimate government, the United Nations, and its envoy to Yemen morally and legally responsible for the safety and freedom of everyone who has been disappeared behind bars without a trace.

The Yemeni Center also condemns in the strongest terms the fate of the politician and abductee, Mr. Mohammed Qahtan, and considers that talking about forming committees to verify his fate after long years of deliberate disappearance is an implicit acknowledgment of the disaster.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) condemns the crime of killing Mohammed Qahtan under torture, and strongly denounces what is being circulated regarding the condition of his body or its exposure to explosion and attributing that to Coalition airstrikes. The Houthis’ history is replete with grave human rights violations; they have previously blown up detainees in the Akwan detention center in Saada and attributed it to airstrikes, and we possess irrefutable evidence against the Houthis in similar cases.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) considers what happened to be a double war crime that lacks the most basic humanitarian and religious values, revealing excessive brutality in dealing with victims even after their death, and cheap trafficking carried out by the Houthis.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) reaffirms its steadfast position on the necessity of releasing all abductees and detainees without exception, based on the “all for all” rule. It emphasizes that any agreement that does not include emptying the prisons and closing secret detention centers remains incomplete and falls short of the aspirations of the Yemeni people to resolve this complex humanitarian issue.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) calls on the international community and the Office of the UN Envoy to Yemen to exert genuine pressure to reveal the graves of victims who died under torture, disclose the forcibly disappeared, ensure perpetrators are held accountable, and prevent them from escaping punishment under the cover of political deals.

Issued by the Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) May 16, 2026