Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Houthi authorities detained dozens of people in the final week of September 2025 — as they have in previous years — for peacefully celebrating Yemen’s September 26 Revolution anniversary or posting about the national day on social media.
The anniversary marks the founding of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962. The Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, view September 21 — the day they seized Sanaa — as the occasion that should be celebrated instead.
“The Houthis appear to devote more resources to arresting people over harmless social media posts than to ensuring access to food and water in areas under their control,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should protect people’s rights, not silence anyone celebrating a national holiday.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Houthis to immediately release everyone detained solely for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and expression, as well as all others arbitrarily detained — including dozens of UN and civil society employees abducted and forcibly disappeared over the past 18 months.
Beginning around September 21, the Houthis began detaining dozens of people over the holiday. Yemeni journalist Fares Al-Himyari posted on X that hundreds of demonstrators were detained in Sanaa, Amran, Hajjah, Dhamar, Al-Bayda, Ibb, and Taiz.
HRW interviewed five people whose relatives were detained. Others said they feared Houthi retaliation if they spoke to the organization about the arrests.
Among those detained are dozens of activists, including satirical writer and commentator Oras Al-Iryani; prominent lawyer Abdulmajid Sabra; and Aref Mohammed Qutran and his son Abdul-Salam, the brother and nephew of prominent judge Abdulwahab Qutran. Many detainees have been denied contact with their families or legal counsel, and authorities have refused to disclose their whereabouts, amounting to enforced disappearance.
One detainee’s brother said his sibling left home on September 22 “to throw out the trash and buy groceries” and never returned. After searching for two hours, family members contacted Houthi security authorities, who provided no details. The family later confirmed “through multiple sources” that the Houthi Security and Intelligence Service was holding him, but they were never officially notified of his location nor permitted to visit or contact him, despite repeated promises. The detainee suffers from diabetes, heightening family concerns about his health.
Sabra told Human Rights Watch in 2024 that after he posted on social media offering legal assistance to detained lawyers over September 26 celebrations, Houthi members “directly threatened” him. On September 25, 2025, Houthi security forces raided his office and arrested him.
One interviewee said Sabra was arrested over a social media post stating: “You [the Houthis] are depriving Yemenis of their right to celebrate their revolution that erupted on September 26 — the revolution that restored their dignity and brought them back to true faith, far from the myths of the Imamate — simply for posting a picture on social media, which you deem betrayal and submission to foreign powers.” Prominent human rights advocate Eshraq Al-Maqtari posted on X that Sabra’s family has no information about his whereabouts.
Judge Abdulwahab Qutran, who was himself previously detained by the Houthis, said his brother Aref and nephew Abdul-Salam were arrested on September 21 without charges. He recounted that three military vehicles and a taxi arrived at his brother’s home in Hamdan, demanding they surrender “or the doors would be broken down.” They were first held at the Hamdan Security Complex but were transferred to an unknown location on September 22. Qutran managed to contact them once through another detainee’s phone, and the last family call with Aref was on September 22, when he said he was ill and feared for his life.
The authorities provided no legal documentation for the arrests, and Qutran said he does not know whether charges were filed, but he believes the detentions were linked to plans to celebrate the September 26 anniversary. Four more people from Qutran village were later detained over the holiday.
Detaining individuals without a judicial order or clear charges violates Article 132 of Yemen’s Criminal Procedure Law. Holding someone without a legal basis or promptly informing them of charges also breaches international human rights law. The UN Panel of Experts on Yemen reported in 2023 that it had documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture in Yemen, with most attributed to the Houthis.
In 2024, Human Rights Watch documented dozens of arrests over the anniversary, many without charge. In 2023, Sabra reported that the Houthis detained around 1,000 people in connection with the holiday. The Yemeni human rights organization SAM for Rights and Liberties found that the Houthis used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators and celebrants.
Houthi authorities have also arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of UN and civil society staff since May 31, 2024, including 19 more UN employees arrested on August 31.
“The Houthis should stop arresting people simply for exercising their rights and expressing beliefs and opinions that differ from their ideology, and they should immediately release all those arbitrarily detained,” Jafarnia said.
