Committees from the NDC’s Good Governance, State-Building and National Issues and Transitional Justice Working Groups had a lively debate with civil society organizations in Taiz governorate on Saturday.
The debate focused on the security situation and effective power vacuum in Taiz, and saw proposals for constitutional amendments, the recovery of stolen lands and funds, and visions of Yemen’s future form of government.
The committees demanded that concerned authorities submit reports and statistics on the people who were injured in - and otherwise affected by - the 2011 revolution.
Civil society organization (CSO) representatives urged for competent authorities to be given positions to ensure that violations which occurred in 2011 would not be repeated.
CSO representatives stated that corruption had reached a high point in Taiz, and pointed to hundreds of influential positions which had been filled by unqualified people on the basis of favoritism.
Hood Organization representative Tawfik Al-Shoby said Taiz had recently witnessed setbacks in all areas.
“There is no state presence and Taiz’s power vacuum is alarming,” he said.
Lawyer and frequent visitor of Taiz’s Freedom Square (the physical heart of Taiz’s part in the 2011 Revolution) Maeen Al-Obaidi demanded that Taiz be declared an independent region. He added that federalism will be the most suitable option for Yemen’s future form of government.
CSO representatives added that children have been suffering in the governorate and also that the provincial central prison was teeming with juveniles.
They also demanded that a committee be formed to investigate all crimes and violations in Yemen and those which occurred at Taiz’s Freedom Square in particular.
Regarding the wrongful confiscation of properties, CSO representatives said that state lands had been given to powerful elites under the pretext that they were investment projects.
International Law Center Director Arif Al-Maqrami said that large plots of land were recently illegally distributed among officials at the local branch of the Central Organization for Control and Auditing.
