SAM for Rights and Liberties has submitted a comprehensive human rights briefing to over 40 international bodies, documenting recently verified secret detention facilities across southern Yemen and the western coast. These facilities, linked to complex security and military arrangements involving the Saudi-led coalition—particularly UAE-backed formations—have been associated with serious human rights violations. The organization called for support for an independent international investigation to ensure justice for victims and end impunity.
The briefing documents the development of these secret detention facilities since 2017, when SAM—one of the first organizations to systematically address the issue—revealed unlawful detention sites in Aden and Hadramawt. Subsequent international reports have confirmed this pattern of extrajudicial detention. These facilities were established and operated within a complex security context involving the United Arab Emirates and allied local formations, creating a parallel detention system that weakened judicial authority and kept hundreds of detainees outside legal safeguards.
SAM’s briefing includes a detailed map of key unlawful detention sites across Aden, Hadramawt, Shabwah, the western coast, and even one facility abroad. The proliferation of these sites reflects a system of de facto control beyond official institutions, where arrest and release decisions often occur outside the oversight of prosecutors or courts.
The briefing further outlines patterns of violations, including enforced disappearance, physical and psychological torture, solitary confinement, coerced confessions, and extreme methods such as electric shocks, prolonged suspension, mock executions, and denial of medical care. SAM emphasized that these abuses have inflicted not only physical harm but also profound trauma on families left for years without knowledge of their loved ones’ fates.
SAM’s work on this issue has gone beyond early exposure, encompassing systematic documentation of testimonies, pattern analysis, victim support, and collaboration with international organizations and investigative bodies. This has elevated the issue from scattered local reports to a prominent position on the international human rights agenda. The organization warned that superficial measures—such as closing individual facilities without investigation—risk reproducing the problem elsewhere rather than dismantling it.
Ending the secret prisons system requires a serious, independent judicial process, free from political influence. Current indicators suggest that political considerations often take precedence over justice, threatening to entrench impunity. SAM called for the establishment of an international commission or independent mechanism capable of accessing detention sites, preserving evidence, and holding individuals and institutions accountable—paving the way for real accountability and prevention of future violations.
SAM stressed that secret prisons are not mere incidental violations in the context of war but a critical test of the rule of law and human dignity. Justice for victims is not only a moral obligation but a prerequisite for any sustainable peace in Yemen.