Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement Friday condemning the unlawful detention of members of Yemen’s national human rights institution by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), a major party to the Yemeni war. The National Commission for the Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR) is an independent body that investigates violations by all parties of the conflict in Yemen.

The members of NCIAVHR, who were visiting an unofficial detention center in the governorate of Socotra, were detained for three hours and released only after being ordered to never visit the center again. One of the detained and released members called the detention center “among the worst things [the Commission] has seen,” according to the HRW report.

Various outlets, including Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press, documented these secret detention facilities run by the United Arab Emirates and its forces. Southern Transitional Council is a political and military organisation in Yemen, originating in 2017 as a faction of the Southern movement that demanded a separate South Yemen.

Earlier this month, President Dr Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi ordered the closure of these prisons and detention centers and the immediate release of individuals held, stating that “the directive comes as part of a broader course aimed at restoring state authority and upholding respect for human rights.” According to the directive, the president had instructed authorities to identify these unlawful detention centers in the Aden, Lahj, and Al-Dhalea governorates. Further, he ordered an urgent plan to shut down these facilities, transfer the detainees to official institutions, and release them if there is no lawful charge. The President’s statement arrives after the STC’s announcement on their dissolution after fighting with the armed group, Yemeni-government-backed forces, and Saudi Arabia for a month.

In 2024, Amnesty International condemned their crackdown on civic spaces. Noting that the STC adopted stringent measures to restrict the work of Yemeni civil society since 2023, people expressed that organizations not politically aligned with STC were scrutinized further. Several people said that work in the field is closely coordinated by the STC at every stage. This restriction led to people censoring themselves so as to navigate the excessive scrutiny and restrictive, burdensome requirements.