Law Approving Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography

In 2004, President Ali Abdullah Saleh issued this law, which approved the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Regarding implementation, however, Yemen’s historical conflict since 1990 has not fostered an environment where child rights laws have been effectively implemented in a consistent manner. The escalation of the conflict since 2015 has exacerbated pre-existing implementation gaps. Additionally, conservative social norms in Yemen, including severe social stigma associated with sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), have led to underreporting of instances of SBGV and have further hindered effective implementation of this law.^[1]

^[1] See Trammell, Rebecca, and Travis Morris. “The Connection between Stigma, Power, and Life Chances: A Qualitative Examination of Gender and Sex Crime in Yemen.” Sociological Focus 45, no. 2 (2012): 159–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41633909.