Death of UN Staff Member Mohamed Al-Shami Following Torture and Enforced Disappearance Raises Alarm over the Fate of 71 UN and Humanitarian Workers Detained by the Houthis

Taiz / Geneva:

The Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC) strongly condemns the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Shami, a Yemeni staff member of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), while in arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance by the Houthi group. Al-Shami had been forcibly disappeared since June 2024, and his death was concealed for more than a month without any justification or medical explanation.

The Center stresses that this death, amid credible reports that the victim was subjected to torture and in the context of previous similar cases, constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights instruments. It further points to a systematic pattern targeting humanitarian and human rights workers in Yemen.

The Center warns of the imminent danger facing 71 UN staff members and humanitarian workers who remain detained in Houthi-run prisons, held incommunicado and isolated from the outside world. Among them are seven of the deceased’s colleagues at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Accordingly, HRITC issues an urgent appeal to the international community and UN bodies, calling for the following measures:

1. The immediate and unconditional release of all UN personnel and staff members of international and local organizations held in arbitrary detention.
2. The establishment of an independent international investigative committee to uncover the circumstances surrounding the death of Mohamed Al-Shami.
3. Immediate access for international humanitarian missions to detention facilities to check on the health and well-being of detainees and put an end to physical and psychological violations against them.
4. The activation of international accountability mechanisms and ensuring that those responsible for these grave violations are not allowed to escape justice.

The continued exposure of dozens of our human rights colleagues and activists to imminent danger places the credibility of the United Nations system and international human rights mechanisms at stake. Their situation demands urgent action that cannot be delayed to save their lives.