Human Rights Department condemns attacks against peaceful demonstrators in Shabwa governorate

The Human Rights Department of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council issued a statement, strongly condemning the attacks against peaceful demonstrators in Shabwa governorate, as well as the artillery shelling that targeted Saqam and Abdan areas.

Hereunder is the statement:

Statement of condemnation and denunciation

The Human Rights Department of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council followed up with great interest and concern the current events on Friday and Saturday, 25 and 26 June 2021 in Abdan and Saqam district of Nisab district in Shabwa governorate, and the accompanying campaign of arresting and shooting peaceful demonstrators and storming the location of the peaceful event by the security forces in Shabwa governorate, in addition to the artillery shelling of “Saqam and Abdan” areas, in clear and explicit violation of freedom of expression and the right to gather under international law, in accordance with Article (21) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of peaceful gathering and the right to demonstrate issued by the association General of the United Nations for the year 1966.

Accordingly, the Human Rights Department in the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council strongly condemns and denounces these attacks against peaceful demonstrators in Shabwa governorate, and the department also condemns the artillery shelling that targeted the “Saqam and Abdan” areas, and blames the security forces in Shabwa governorate and the other parties that stand behind these attacks to take full responsibility for these violations.

The department also calls on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the capital, Aden, to condemn this act, which contradicts international human rights covenants, which stipulate freedom of expression and peaceful gathering, and to intervene immediately to release the detainees, who are:

1- The poet Salem Al-Abd Qeshour

2- Naji Salem Ahmed Jarash Al-Daghari

3- Photographer Hafez Ahmed Saleh Makour

issued by:

Human Rights Department of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council