NCIAVHR Holds Public Hearing for Victims of Arbitrary Detention and Enforced Disappearance in Hadramout Coast

Mukalla | 19 January 2025

The National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR), on Monday, held a collective public hearing in the city of Mukalla during which it heard testimonies from more than one hundred victims who were subjected to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. The hearing comes as part of the Commission’s investigations into violations that have occurred since 2016 in the coastal areas of Hadramout Governorate.

During the session, the Commission examined a range of unlawful practices used against the victims, along with the accompanying grave violations of the rights to liberty and personal security, freedom of opinion and expression, and detention outside the framework of the law.

The hearing, chaired by Commission members Judges Hussein Al-Mashdali, Mohammed Tulyan, Nasser Al-Awadhli, and Ishraq Al-Muqtari, featured detailed accounts from victims describing the patterns of violations they endured within official and unofficial detention facilities, as well as government premises used as detention centers. These accounts included descriptions of unlawful detention conditions and cases of death resulting from torture.

Victims explained the circumstances surrounding their arrests, stating that they were taken from their homes, workplaces, or public streets and transferred to secret detention sites without informing their families or allowing communication for varying periods of time. They were subsequently subjected to multiple forms of violence, physical torture, ill-treatment, and psychological abuse, which in many cases resulted in permanent disabilities, physical disfigurement, and long-term psychological disorders and illnesses.

The victims also provided testimonies regarding fellow detainees who died as a result of torture, along with lists of individuals accused of committing these violations and details of the names and locations of detention centers. Additionally, they submitted medical reports, video recordings, and photographs documenting their health conditions at the time of their release.

In concluding their testimonies, the victims reaffirmed their demands for holding those responsible for these violations accountable, ensuring individual and collective reparations, restoring dignity and reputation, and delivering justice for all those who were subjected to abuse and assaults on human dignity.