Yemen (S/PRST/2013/3)

The Security Council convened to adopt resolution 2140 (26 February 2014) in order to express their continuing support for the political

transition in Yemen. Furthermore, within resolution 2140, the Security Council established a sanctions regime which included asset freezes,

travel bans and an accompanying Sanctions Committee.

This resolution highlighted Yemen’s efforts to strengthen women’s participation in political and public life, including through measures to

ensure at least 30 percent women candidates ran for national legislative elections and elected councils; and recalled all women, peace and

security resolutions. However, references to women’s participation in political and public life was largely confined to the preamble. The only

operative mention of women, peace and security concerns came in the form of encouraging all constituencies in the country, including

women’s groups, to continue their active and constructive engagement in the political transition and to continue their spirit of consensus to

implement the subsequent steps in the transition process and the recommendations of the National Dialogue Conference (para.3).

Although there were several references to women, peace and security concerns in this resolution, most were limited to the preamble. The

references made in the preamble only touched upon participation, and the one operative mention encouraged women’s groups to remain

involved in the political transition process, rather than encouraging, with stronger language, leadership in Yemen to actively seek and ensure

women’s continued involvement. Beyond references to women’s participation, the Council missed the opportunity to stress the need for

women’s rights to be entrenched within the then-new constitution, and for the particular protection of women’s rights more broadly.

In contrast to the most recent MAP on Yemen (May 2013), this resolution was largely unresponsive, or at least weak in its applicable

responses. It encouraged women’s participation, but mostly in the preamble and without much weight behind its words. It recommended the

committee to investigate allegations of human rights violations from 2011, but only looked “forward to steps taken” towards its

implementation and “invite(d)” a timeframe for appointment of committee members. Finally, the resolution made no mention of the

inclusion of women’s rights within the new constitution, nor of any legal reforms to remove discriminatory provisions against women.

The most recent measure taken by the Security Council was a presidential statement issued in 2013, S/PRST/2013/3. Although the

presidential statement was not a resolution, it seemed to offer more substantive attention to women, peace and security. The presidential

statement emphasized the need for women’s participation, and not just by encouraging women’s groups to remain involved. The statement

also urged the need to respect rule of law and protect human rights, particularly those of women and vulnerable groups. The most recent

resolution was S/RES/2051 (2012), which also emphasized the need for an inclusive National Dialogue process, but did so more affirmatively

within the operative section.