Child’s Rights Law

Yemen’s Child’s Rights Law was adopted in 2002. This law is key for child protection actions in Yemen, given that the law establishes rules and regulations safeguarding children’s fundamental rights, which is the broad umbrella under which protecting children in armed conflict falls.[1] The law contains 171 articles and 12 chapters that address the following themes:

1- Definitions, and fundamental child’s rights (Chapters 1-3): includes the key definitions (including the definition of a child as any person under 18), as well as children’s inherit birth rights to nationality, identity, etc., and issues of custody and family environment.

2- Child’s rights to development, survival, and well-being (Chapters 4-6): Details a framework of regulations toward children’s rights to access health, education, adequate living standards, and leisure.

3- Child protection (Chapters 7-9): Highlights general and legal special measures aiming to protect children in vulnerable situations (including unaccompanied/separated children, as well as children impacted by conflict and natural disasters) and against abuse or exploitation (including child labor and sexual exploitation).

4- Child’s participation/agency, and enforcement/penalties (Chapters 10-11): Focuses on safeguarding children’s rights to free speech. Outlines roles and responsibilities in enforcing the laws and addresses penalties of the child’s rights laws.

5- Closing Provisions (Chapter 12): Concluding chapter that contains clauses on amendments, enforcement, and commencement.

There have been serious challenges for implementing child rights laws in Yemen. Even before the outbreak of conflict in Yemen in 2015, Yemen was one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, suffering greatly from deteriorating infrastructure (health, education, legal), high poverty and literacy rates, and social/cultural norms that directly hinder the implementation of child’s rights laws. For example, child marriage is illegal per the Child’s Rights Law, but the practice is socially accepted and still occurs, despite its illegality. Similarly, recruitment and use of children is proscribed by the law, yet children’s handling of weapons/firearms is socially accepted in Yemen, particularly among tribal communities, which compose much of the social fabric in the country.

Since 2015, armed conflict in the country has further eroded the already previously limited legal frameworks for protecting children in Yemen. Conflict-driven socio-economic factors have had a negative rippling effect, further exacerbating poverty, which has driven a rise in child’s rights violations, such as child labor, child marriage, and recruitment and use of children. The conflict has hindered access to education, health, and leisure/play for a large percentage of children in the country.

[1] For more information about child rights in Yemen generally, see “Access to Justice for Children: Yemen,” Child Rights International Network, https://archive.crin.org/sites/default/files/yemen_access_to_justice.pdf.