Geneva – 1 September 2026 ..

SAM for Rights and Liberties said that the Houthi group’s release of civil society activist Sarah Al-Faeq, Executive Director of the Civil Coalition for Peace, after more than two years of arbitrary detention, is a long-overdue positive step. However, it neither remedies the violations she endured nor addresses the continued detention of dozens of United Nations personnel and humanitarian and civil society workers.

Houthi authorities released Al-Faeq in Sana’a on 31 August 2026. Members of the Security and Intelligence Service had arrested her on 6 June 2024 as part of a large-scale campaign of raids targeting employees of UN agencies, international and local organizations, and diplomatic missions. Available information indicates that Al-Faeq was arrested along with her husband, Faisal Qasim, and their children. Her husband and children were subsequently released, while she remained in detention for more than two years.

Throughout this period, Al-Faeq was held without judicial proceedings that met fair-trial standards, while information concerning her whereabouts and conditions of detention remained limited. Concealing a detainee’s fate or whereabouts from their family may amount to enforced disappearance, a continuing violation that does not end until the truth is disclosed and the victim is released.

Tawfiq Al-Humaidi, President of SAM for Rights and Liberties, said: “Sarah Al-Faeq’s return to her family is a moment that deserves to be welcomed, but it is also a reminder of the dozens of families still waiting for their loved ones. Individual releases must not become a substitute for ending the policy of detaining humanitarian and civil society workers, nor should they obscure victims’ right to accountability and reparation.”

In June 2026, the United Nations said that 73 of its personnel remained arbitrarily detained by Houthi authorities, some of them held incommunicado, and that one UN staff member had died in detention. The arrests began in 2021 and expanded significantly in June 2024, followed by further waves of arrests throughout 2025. These practices have inflicted severe suffering on detainees and their families and undermined organizations’ ability to provide assistance to millions of Yemenis.

Houthi authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all personnel of the United Nations, international and local organizations, civil society organizations, and diplomatic missions; disclose the whereabouts of all detainees; allow them to communicate with their families and lawyers; and ensure independent investigations into allegations of enforced disappearance, ill-treatment, and deaths in detention.

The United Nations and concerned states should also intensify coordinated pressure to secure the release of all those detained and affirm that Al-Faeq’s release does not extinguish her right to an effective remedy and compensation, or to accountability for those responsible for her detention.