Institutional and legislative reform constitutes an urgent priority that must receive the highest level of attention in post-conflict Yemen. It serves as a key measure for preventing recurrence and plays a central role in strengthening accountability, justice, and human rights. It also enables communities to access essential services and reinforces trust between citizens and state authorities, as well as with transitional justice programs and recovery initiatives. The following principles and foundations should guide the process of institutional and legislative reform:
1. Redrafting the constitution to reflect the aspirations of the Yemeni people, based on the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference and the specific recommendations of the State-Building Team.
2. Implementing gradual and comprehensive structural and operational reforms across all institutions, particularly within the justice, security, and military sectors, guided by carefully designed plans that diagnose existing challenges and provide appropriate solutions.
3. Promoting transparency and accountability through the establishment of diverse oversight mechanisms covering institutional functions and activities.
4. Developing and qualifying personnel in the security and justice sectors to ensure thorough understanding of laws and legislation, thereby advancing human rights and delivering justice effectively.
5. Promoting good governance and sound management, establishing clear and transparent financial and administrative policies, and advancing digital transformation and technological development, including the governance and modernization of the security and justice sectors. This limits violations and abuses by institutions and individuals and enhances citizens’ ability to access essential services on an equal basis.
6. Strengthening mechanisms to combat financial and administrative corruption, illicit enrichment, money laundering, and other illegal activities.
7. Reviewing and amending existing laws to ensure their alignment with the highest international standards for human rights.
8. Enacting new laws and legislation that support transitional justice, institutional reform, anti-corruption efforts, and the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. These laws should include clear and specific definitions of human rights violations, such as enforced disappearance, child recruitment, torture, and other serious abuses, criminalizing and prohibiting them under all circumstances, and establishing strict legal safeguards to prevent their recurrence and hold perpetrators accountable.
9. Enacting legislation that criminalizes torture in all its forms and imposes deterrent penalties on law enforcement officers, investigators, or others who practice it. This also includes enforcing legal provisions that reject any statements or confessions obtained through physical or psychological coercion.
10. Ensuring transparency in the implementation of various agreements, addressing related issues, providing necessary information, and engaging civil society to strengthen its diverse roles, including oversight and awareness-raising.
11. Repealing all decisions and laws issued during the conflict, particularly those affecting public and personal freedoms such as freedom of expression, movement, and mobility, and overturning unjust judgments based on exceptional measures that lacked fair trial standards.
12. Declaring a media truce among all parties and directing media efforts toward promoting reconciliation, fraternity, and opportunities for peace.
The painting by the artist: Saad al Shehabi, Visual Content Editor.
