To review US human rights report on Yemen and other issues:Seminar on human rights held [Archives:2003/660/Local News]

Sanaa, August 16 – Civic Democratic initiatives' support Foundation (CDF) held on Wednesday August 13 a seminar to discuss the US 2002 human rights report carried out by the US Department of State.
Representatives of embassies, human rights organizations, civil society institutions, parliament and mass media participated in the event and commented on the US human rights report.
The Political and Economic Officer of the US Embassy in Sanaa, Ms. Catherine Westley was present in the event. Ms. Westley gave a briefing on how the report was carried out and what sources it relied on.
The participants discussed a number of issues related to human rights, law enforcement, justice system, press freedom, women rights and the cooperation between NGOs and the ministry of human rights and other governmental authorities.
Even though many participants praised the efforts of the US embassy in producing the report that tackled human rights issues in Yemen, most of them also criticized its contents claiming that it lacked completeness as it ignored many important issues.
“When we are criticizing the USA, we do not mean to criticize American citizens, but rather decision makers in the US administration. We do not trust the US administration any more especially after 11 September. The human rights report should have been objective and transparent. However, the report issued by the US Foreign Secretary did not seem to be professional and had more of a political nature.” one of participants said.
Meanwhile, other participants felt that the report could serve as an important source of information to correct current ongoing human rights violations. “We have to focus on the particular cases of human rights violations mentioned in the report so as to know our problems and work on improving human rights conditions in Yemen.” another participant said.
The seminar concentrated on issues concerning law enforcement and judicial reforms. “We should concentrate on judicial reforms that are badly needed for law enforcement before we go on to other issues.” said Walid Al-Saqqaf, Editor of Yemen Times who participated in the event.
The participants concluded that the US report was a good step forward but should also be followed by follow ups and ways to pinpoint the cure and mean to prevent such human rights violations in the future.
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