Attachments
Briefing Note Background: This Note has been developed by the Protection Cluster Yemen and its Areas of Responsibility, encompassing Child Protection, Gender Based Violence and Mine Action, with additional contributions from the Global Protection Cluster and its Advocacy Task Team. Based on extensive protection monitoring and community engagement by protection partners, the Note aims to highlight key protection risks and their impacts on civilians and also put forward recommendations for donors and other key stakeholders to help address these risks and strengthen the rights of conflict-affected communities ahead of the 2023 High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen.
Context
After eight years of hostilities, Yemen remains a complex protection crisis. Widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, displacement, marginalization, discriminatory norms, and explosive ordnance contamination continue to directly impact millions of civilians, including more than 4.5 million IDPs. As of September 2022, there were an estimated 14,780 civilian casualties that have occurred since the beginning of the conflict. While active hostilities in some areas of the country are still causing new displacements and vulnerabilities, the country-wide truce in 2022 resulted in an overall decrease in both civilian casualties and new displacements. More recently, accelerating economic deterioration and the impacts of climate change have become key drivers of needs for conflict-affected communities, exposing many to a range of compounding protection risks.
For 2023, it is expected that two-thirds of the population (21.6 million people) will rely on humanitarian assistance while 17.7 million people are estimated to be in need of protection services. The Protection Cluster and its Areas of Responsibility, composed of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Child Protection (CP) and Mine Action (MA), are targeting 8.1 million people with the protection response for a total funding requirement of $225.7M. In line with the Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen, this year the Protection Cluster aims (1) to further strengthen the protection of flood and conflict-affected communities, including prevention and mitigation of rights violations, (2) to ensure that affected communities, particularly the most vulnerable members such as persons with disabilities, women, girls, older people, and marginalized groups such as the Muhamasheen, benefit from full and non-discriminatory access to essential services and enjoyment of their rights, and (3) to improve social cohesion and resilience of conflict-affected people.
The Protection Cluster Yemen appeals to the international community to stand with the Yemeni people and support the Protection Cluster and its partners in addressing urgent needs while strengthening rights and resilience. The following messages reflect the key protection issues facing affected communities in Yemen as well as actions needed to tackle these challenges.