The National Issues and Transitional Justice Working Group presented its final report on its first session activity to the full body of National Dialogue Conference (NDC) members on Tuesday.
The report included a recommendation to criminalize the use of slander against officials and activists and also stated that there was no statute of limitations with regard to citizens’ rights and the matter of illegally-confiscated properties.
It contained a number of group decisions which focused on how transitional justice legislation should be drafted, as well as on how human rights violations – and especially enforced disappearances – should be addressed.
A representative also stated that the group had agreed to include human rights violations which occurred during 2007 in its agenda, as well as to carry out necessary fact-finding investigations into enforced disappearances which occurred during Yemen’s political conflicts in Yemen. Group members have also agreed to undertake efforts which would serve to ensure the preservation of Yemen’s historical ‘national memory’.
The working group’s report called for the introduction of a national independent authority to return illegally-confiscated properties and public funds to their rightful owners, as well as for a judicial committee which would address the matter of predominantly southern illegally-confiscated lands.
By way of the report, the group also recommended that all political factions and civil society organizations participating in the NDC condemn terrorist acts and work to combat the political and religious reasons behind terrorism. The government was also urged to provide reparations to the victims of anti-terrorism ‘errors’.
Furthermore, the group recommended that a national counterterrorism strategy be developed and for extrajudicial killings by way of drones and guided missiles, as well as lengthy detentions without charges or trials, be outlawed. It was further recommended that those who had been detained but not convicted of a crime be compensated and that rehabilitation programs be prepared for former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The report called for the government to prosecute those who were involved with the killing of protesters or soldiers during 2011’s Youth Revolution, as well as for those who were detained in connection with the revolution to be released. Transparent investigations into political crimes were called for.
The report also included special recommendations; first and foremost among them was the formation of a committee tasked with investigation human rights abuses in Yemen in 2011.
A further recommendation was for laws which concern how top government officials are appointed or elected to be reconsidered. Such efforts, the report stated, could contribute positively to future attempts to recover illegally-confiscated properties and stolen public funds.
