ACHRS Statement on Yemen: Thousands of Children Enrolled in Houthi Summer Recruitment Camp
The United Nations report on the recruitment of children in armed conflict released in May 2021 reported 211 cases of children recruited to fight in Yemen in 2020 employed by Houthi groups. Ceremonies were held across the country to celebrate the end of military summer camps for children in mid-August 2021. ACHRS condemns the propaganda carried out on children in Houthi recruitment centers and calls for the cessation of these activities as well as the employment of children in military activities.
Thousands of children were enrolled in 52 Houthi summer recruitment camps, and graduation ceremonies were held in densely populated Yemeni areas to recognize their skills in mid-August to conclude 45-day sessions. The ceremony in Sana’a, which was prominent in terms of numbers, was enlivened by demonstrations of competence and through the use of anti-imperialist and anti-Israeli slogans. These training sites are described by the Houthi leadership as summer recruitment centers where children are given 45 days of education, training and immunity from “false cultures”. However, members of the Yemeni government as well as numerous associations and activists working for the protection of human rights reject these practices and warn of human rights violations by speaking of indoctrination or propaganda through the use of racist, anti-Semitic or sectarian ideologies.
The report published in February 2021 entitled “A Militarised Childhood” by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights and SAM for Rights and Liberates states that the Houthis have recruited more than 10,000 child soldiers since 2014 and have turned schools and educational institutions into military training camps to recruit children into Houthi combat and war ideology. Sent on family orders, these future child soldiers would learn through religious teachings to “respect the divine will” and understand the function and scope of “holy missions” or “jihad,” legitimizing a commitment in opposition to the internationally recognized Yemeni government. While Arab News describes the financial gifts and food baskets offered by the Houthis to families who put their children in these camps, families who do not encourage their children to participate are said to be blacklisted.
Ahmed Al-Qurashi, director of the SEYAJ organization in charge of child protection in Yemen, said that “these camps were preparing children and teenagers to become part of the war machine. According to SEYAJ, at least 500,000 children have attended these summer camps.
The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies strongly condemns the recruitment of children into the military ranks of Houthi armed groups and Yemeni armies. ACHRS also condemns the use of propaganda for sectarian, racist or anti-Semitic ideology as well as the use of pressure tactics on families to increase the incentive to enrol children in these recruitment camps. ACHRS calls on the Yemeni government to implement the ban on the recruitment of children for military missions in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) ratified in 1991 by Yemen.
