Tawakkol Karman Foundation (TKF) held a conference under the title of “Yemen: War Challenges and Opportunities for Peace” in Istanbul on Thursday, 8 November 2018. The conference aimed to discuss the opportunities of peace, the impact of war on the country, root causes of the conflict, human rights grievances, deteriorating humanitarian situations, and proposed vision to achieve sustainable peace.
Karman proposed a number of steps to end war and establish peace in Yemen, including “stop of the war, lift blockade, and withdrawal of UAE and Saudi Arabia form the country”, also to “restore the political process that halted by Houthis coup d’etat, against the legitimacy”, she added.
Karman stressed the need to form a military committee to withdraw weapons from all militias, either Houthis group, or other militia established at the conflict areas in Yemen, also to establish a national unity government by all entities, following Houthis turn into a political party, to organize the constitution referendum and the public elections.
Ms. Karman also called to establish a national reconciliation commission, reparation, and reconstruction, and to obligate the Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia and UAE, to compensate for the destruction inflicted on the country.
Vice-president of Justice and Development ruling party in Turkey, Judat Yilmaz, said his country unequivocally condemns, misuse of sectarianism as a new source of conflict in Yemen, confirming that “sectarian conflict will turn the region into hell’. He clarified that his country respects all sectarian identities, but it opposes sectarianism.
Former Tunisian president, Moncef Marzouki, called western and Arab media to pay attention to the humanitarian crisis that Yemen is living.
He urged media outlets to depict child Amal Hassan image, who died of malnutrition, every day in their frontpages, and at the TV channels screens, including Aljazeera.
Second working paper “Yemen in the regional conflict balance” by Celine Grizi, a geopolitics professor and researcher, policies advisor and international relations observer, France. Third paper on “the role of religious groups in the conflict” by Francois Bourga, the political scientist and Arabist, senior researcher in the National Center for Scientific Researches, France.
The second session, first paper discussed “the state of human rights in Yemen, in light of the war” by the Yemeni activist and researcher Nabeel Al-Baidhani, and the second paper on “the international responsibility to the humanitarian issue in Yemen”, by Patricia Lidle, senior international communication expert, in the communication and policy strategies, and conflict management, Canada.
The statement also recommends the establishment of a national commission for reparation and compensation for the victims of war.
The Conference called in its recommendations to respect Yemeni sovereignty, and to form an international tribunal on Yemen, to consider the committed crimes in the country.
