Informal briefing by the Abductees' Mothers Association to members of the Security Council, July 2020

New York – March 6, 2025 – Nesmah Mansoor Ali, Senior Policy & Communication Officer at the Peace Track Initiative (PTI), delivered a briefing to the United Nations Security Council, marking PTI’s third engagement with the Council. Her intervention highlighted the compounded crises of armed conflict, climate change, and environmental degradation in Yemen, with a particular focus on their disproportionate impact on women and marginalized communities. Ali underscored the urgent need for climate-responsive peacebuilding, stronger environmental governance, and the inclusion of women in all peace and political processes. She called on the Council to address environmental destruction as a war crime, ensure accountability, and support local peace initiatives tackling resource-based conflicts. This marks PTI’s ongoing commitment to amplifying the voices of Yemeni women and advocating for inclusive and sustainable peace at the highest international level.

Linda Al-Obahi, Senior Advisor on Political Affairs and Mediation, delivered a briefing to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the deteriorating situation of women's rights in Yemen. Representing the Peace Track Initiative (PTI) and the Women Solidarity Network, she highlighted the urgent humanitarian needs and the systemic violations against women and girls in the country. Linda’s briefing shed light on the severe restrictions on women’s freedom of movement, the rise in gender-based violence, and the increasing use of child marriage and forced displacement as survival strategies. She also emphasized the targeted attacks on women human rights defenders, activists, and marginalized women, many of whom face arbitrary detention, torture, and sexual violence. She called on the Security Council to ensure the release of arbitrarily detained women, include women in peace negotiations, and integrate gender-sensitive policies in Yemen’s transition process. PTI stands committed to supporting Yemeni women and ensuring their voices are heard in all efforts toward sustainable peace.

On 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day, Rasha Jarhum, co-founder and Director of the Peace Track Initiative, addressed the UN Security Council during an Arria-formula meeting. Speaking on behalf of more than 300 Yemeni women leaders represented by the Peace Track Initiative and the Women Solidarity Network, Jarhum underscored the critical yet consistently overlooked contributions of Yemeni women to peacebuilding, and called for their full, meaningful, and sustained inclusion in all formal peace processes. Jarhum’s statement highlighted a striking paradox: despite playing pivotal roles in mediating local ceasefires, facilitating humanitarian access, and securing landmark gains—such as the 30% gender quota in the 2013 National Dialogue Conference—Yemeni women have been systematically excluded from Track I negotiations, including the Kuwait and Stockholm talks. She denounced the patriarchal justifications for their exclusion and criticized the international community’s failure to enforce accountability under UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and Yemen’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. The statement further drew attention to the growing violence against women, including arbitrary detention, torture, and sexual violence by parties to the conflict, particularly the Houthis. Jarhum urged the Security Council to ensure that future peace processes are inclusive, transparent, and representative—stressing that sustainable peace is unattainable without gender equality and the direct participation of women, youth, and civil society actors. This statement remains a powerful advocacy tool and a timely reminder that women's inclusion must be a non-negotiable pillar in all UN-supported peace efforts for Yemen.