Yemen: Atrocities, Accountability and the Role of the US
Promise Institute for Human Rights – Human Rights Around the World Series
This conversation offered an overview of the conflict in Yemen, and the quest for accountability – particularly as concerns the actions of the United States.
This discussion was moderated by Kate Mackintosh (Executive Director, Promise Institute for Human Rights) will feature Kristine Beckerle (Former Legal Director of Accountability and Redress for Mwatana for Human Rights) and Bonyan Gamal (Accountability and Redress officer at Mwatana for Human Rights).
About the Speakers:
Kristine Beckerle is the Cover-Lowenstein Fellow and a Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. Her work focuses on international law violations during conflict, with a particular focus on pathways towards credible investigations, accountability and reparations, and opportunities for international solidarity in human rights work. Before Yale, Beckerle was the Legal Director of Accountability and Redress for Mwatana for Human Rights, an independent Yemeni rights organization. While at Mwatana, Beckerle and her colleagues on the Accountability and Redress team investigated civilian harm resulting from the United States’ use of lethal force in Yemen, the Saudi/UAE-led Coalition and Ansar Allah (Houthi) armed group’s failure to provide credible redress, the warring parties’ starvation-related conduct, and the role of potentially complicit actors in abuse, amongst other issues. Beckerle earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and her A.B from Harvard University. Before law school, Beckerle worked with the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees on issues related to gender-based violence and international protection in Jordan.
Bonyan Gamal is a lawyer based in Sana’a Yemen, she is an Accountability and Redress officer at Mwatana for Human Rights, she has been working in Mwatana for 6 years, for two years she worked as a field researcher documenting human rights violations by all parties to the conflict, covering several governorates around Yemen. Then worked in the legal support unit providing legal support for the victims of detention related abuses in Yemen, focusing on Sana’a and supervising the team of lawyers in Aden and Al Houdaida governorates. She worked on several cases of Baha’i and Jewish minorities cases in Sana’a and women. She is now working on promoting proper accountability for Yemen through international legal action. She has worked on several issues in that field like arms trade, US drones operations and detentions and has been working on that for the last 3 years.