Yemen 24: A Webblog about Yemen

By: Moneer Al-Omari* According to the General Directorate of Passports at the Saudi Ministry of Interior, about 450,000 illegal Yemeni immigrants have been allowed to correct their residency status in the kingdom and to legally work in public and private establishments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by August 2015. Based on the findings of the latest National Census for Population, conducted in 2004, there are over 1.8 million Yemeni expatriates and they by then accounted for about 5% of Yemen's overall population. This figure is, by all means, very high if compared to the world average of 3.2%. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised when using these census statistics given   the fact that this census was conducted a decade or so ago and that there are no recent statistics about the accurate number of expatriates, especially when a large number of Yemeni people traveled outside the country for work over the last 10 years and also when the Yemeni government does ...

By: Moneer Al-Omari The Open Budget Partnership (OBP) has recently released the findings of the Open Budget Survey which is conducted in over 100 countries across the globe. The survey, carried out in Yemen by the Social Research and Development Center ( SRDC ), measures three aspects of how governments are managing the public finance including the transparency of the state’s budget, engagement of citizens and non-government organizations in decisions pertaining to how resources are collected and how they are used as well as strength of auditing organizations and this relates in Yemen’s case to the legislator and the Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA). Based on the findings of the survey, the OBP develops its Open Budget Index (OBI). The index is considered the world’s only independent, comparable measure of budget transparency, participation, and oversight. The overall score for Yemen on the Open Budget Index for 2015 is 34 out of 100, ...

Moneer Al-Omari   Yemeni Journalists staged a sit-in a week ago, July 9, 2015, at the headquarters of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) in Sana’a in protest against the continuous violations of press freedoms and the illegal and unlawful acts by Houthi militia that targeted dozens of independent and opposing media outlets and journalists. According to the Secretary General of the YJS Marwan Dammaj, eight journalists have been killed since the beginning of war in Yemen, 12 have been kidnapped and forcibly disappeared and over 300 journalists lost their jobs. As Houthis advanced from Amran and took over Sana’a back in September 2014, they have harshly fought all sorts of freedoms. They have also committed serious violations of human rights and public freedoms. Freedom of speech was tightly restricted and political opponents were harshly targeted. However, the violations of human rights and freedom of expression and opinion by Houthi militia have markedly increased ...

Indigenous Approach to Water Resources Management and Conflict Resolution in Yemen Moneer Al-Omari* Yemen's ancient civilization was agricultural in nature. Later, commerce came to be important as well, given the fact that the country is situated on the famous trade route of spices best known as the " Spices Road" which connects South East Asia including China and India with ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Levant, Egypt and beyond. The country was also producing some of these spices like frankincense. However, having fertile lands and adequate rainfall were good reasons for developing an agriculture-based civilization. This has prompted the Greek Geographer Ptolemy   to call it Eudaimon Arabia (the Arabia Felix in Latin or the Happy Arabia in English). Sustainability, in its modern representation, is not new for Yemenis who used to be very sensitive in the use of natural resources around them. They have carefully worked towards a balanced, right...