Report Documents Thousands of Violations Against Women Attributed to Houthis

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A Yemeni rights group has documented 5,834 violations against women that it attributes to the Houthi movement over a period of eight years. The figures were released by the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms in a report published to coincide with International Women’s Day, covering the period from the start of 2017 to the end of 2025 and spanning 15 governorates.

According to the report, the documented violations encompass a range of serious abuses, including killings, injuries, abductions, enforced disappearances and both physical and psychological torture. The organisation said its field team had recorded 1,479 killings and 3,398 injuries resulting from various forms of violence, among them artillery shelling, landmine explosions and sniper attacks.

The report identified Taiz as the most affected governorate, with the highest number of killings, followed by Hodeidah, Aden and several others. It also stated that 274 women had lost their lives as a result of landmines that it attributed to the Houthi movement, particularly in areas affected by the conflict.

The figures, as presented by the organisation, offer an account of the toll that the conflict has taken on women in Yemen from the perspective of a group that documents violations. As with reports produced by parties and organisations involved in a contested conflict, the findings reflect the organisation’s documentation and characterisation of events.

The plight of women in Yemen’s conflict has been a subject of widespread concern. Women have borne a heavy share of the burden of the war, exposed to violence, displacement and hardship, and reports documenting abuses against them contribute to the broader effort to draw attention to the human cost of the conflict and to the situation of women in particular.

The categories of violation documented in the report reflect the range of ways in which civilians can be harmed in conflict. Killings and injuries represent the most direct forms of harm, while abductions and enforced disappearances inflict profound suffering on victims and their families, and torture constitutes among the gravest of abuses under international norms.

The attribution of casualties to artillery shelling, landmines and sniper attacks points to the particular dangers facing civilians in areas affected by fighting. These forms of violence can strike indiscriminately, and their toll on non-combatants, including women, reflects the exposure of civilians to the hazards of conflict in contested and front-line areas.

The identification of Taiz as the most affected governorate is consistent with the city’s experience during the war. Taiz has endured prolonged fighting, with parts of it divided by front lines, and its civilian population has faced significant dangers, making it one of the areas where the human cost of the conflict has been especially severe.

The report’s finding that 274 women were killed by landmines highlights a particular dimension of the threat facing civilians. Landmines and explosive remnants of war pose an indiscriminate and enduring danger, and their toll on women, as on other civilians, reflects the pervasive risk posed by contamination in affected areas of the country.

The timing of the report’s release to coincide with International Women’s Day reflects an effort to draw attention to the situation of women in Yemen at a moment of global focus on women’s rights and welfare. Such occasions are often used by organisations to highlight issues and to advocate for those affected by conflict and abuse.

The documentation of violations by rights organisations plays a role in efforts to establish a record of abuses and to advocate for accountability. Such documentation can inform international awareness and debate, support the case for action and contribute to the broader effort to address the human rights dimension of Yemen’s conflict, though the claims of any single actor are typically contested.

The human rights situation in Yemen has been a matter of grave concern throughout the conflict, with reports of violations by various parties. Human rights organisations and United Nations bodies have documented abuses over the course of the war, and the protection of civilians, including women, remains a pressing issue for the international community.

The enforced disappearances and abductions cited in the report point to abuses that have caused particular anguish. The concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the detained inflicts ongoing suffering on families, and the issue of the disappeared has been among the most painful legacies of the conflict, affecting women both as victims and as relatives seeking information.

Reports such as this one form part of a broader body of documentation concerning the conduct of the conflict in Yemen. While produced from particular perspectives and subject to the contested nature of the war, they contribute to the accumulation of accounts that inform understanding of the human cost and of the situation of vulnerable groups, including women.

Rights advocates argue that documentation of this kind, whatever its source, matters most for the future. A detailed record of abuses, they contend, is essential groundwork for any eventual process of accountability and redress, and for ensuring that the experiences of women caught up in the conflict are not lost or forgotten once the fighting ends. Whether such records ultimately translate into justice will depend on political developments far beyond the reach of the organisations that compile them, but their preservation is widely seen as a necessary first step.

For now, the report by the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms adds to the documentation of the toll the conflict has taken on women in Yemen. As the war and its consequences persist, the situation of women, and the abuses to which they have been exposed, remain an important dimension of the humanitarian and human rights concerns surrounding the country.