URGENT HUMANITARIAN APPEAL
American Center for Justice (ACJ) Sounds the Alarm over the Environmental and Public Health Catastrophe in Taiz amid the Houthi Militia’s Prevention of Fuel Supplies and Continued Siege
The American Center for Justice (ACJ) expresses its grave concern over the rapidly deteriorating environmental and public health situation in Taiz city, following the complete suspension of municipal cleaning and waste collection operations and the shutdown of municipal vehicles and equipment due to depleted diesel supplies. The Houthi militia is preventing fuel from entering the city by closing all main and secondary access routes, while simultaneously obstructing access to the main landfill west of the city.
Through photographic and video evidence, as well as firsthand field testimonies, ACJ has documented how streets and residential neighbourhoods across Taiz have been transformed into open-air dumping grounds. Tonnes of rubbish have accumulated in front of homes, commercial premises and restaurants, as well as at the entrances to schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities. These facilities are already experiencing near-total operational paralysis and severe shortages of water and medical supplies.
The rapidly accumulating solid and medical waste in a densely populated urban environment, home to hundreds of thousands of civilians and internally displaced persons (IDPs), including more than 52,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition according to UN estimates, is creating conditions conducive to the spread of potentially deadly epidemics and diseases, including cholera, dengue fever, respiratory illnesses and skin diseases.
The Houthi militia’s prevention of fuel supplies essential to the operation of public services and healthcare facilities, coupled with its obstruction of municipal vehicles seeking access to waste disposal sites, goes far beyond the scope of military measures. It exposes the civilian population to the grave risk of preventable illness and death by contaminating the environment on which their lives and well-being depend.
Under international law, such conduct may constitute the deliberate deprivation of civilians of essential supplies and services indispensable to their survival. A siege that disrupts sanitation services and undermines the conditions necessary for life raises serious concerns under the legal prohibitions against starvation of civilians and the imposition of life-threatening living conditions. Where such measures are deliberately employed to inflict widespread suffering on the population of Taiz in an attempt to compel political or military submission, they may also constitute collective punishment. The resulting paralysis of daily life and disruption of essential public-service infrastructure pose a direct threat to the rights to life and to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as to children’s rights to education and adequate, safe food.
Under Yemeni domestic law, these practices contravene Articles 35 and 54 of the Yemeni Constitution, which establish environmental protection as a national responsibility and safeguard the right to healthcare and preventive health services.
They also conflict with Environmental Protection Law No. 26 of 1995, which prohibits activities that cause environmental pollution or harm human health.
Furthermore, these practices constitute a breach of Public Hygiene Law No. 39 of 1999 and its implementing regulations, which govern the collection, transportation and disposal of waste as essential components of public health protection.
In addition, conduct that exposes the lives or health of the population to serious danger, deliberately contributes to the spread of disease and epidemics, or disrupts essential public facilities may fall within the scope of offences punishable under Yemen’s Crimes and Penalties Law No. 12 of 1994, where the requisite legal elements are established.
Under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, the conduct attributed to the Houthi militia raises serious concerns regarding compliance with Common Article 3 of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment and measures of intimidation against protected persons.
These practices are also inconsistent with Article 14 of Additional Protocol II of 1977 and Rule 53 of customary international humanitarian law, which prohibit the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and address the protection of objects indispensable to civilian survival. Such objects include supplies and infrastructure essential to the operation of water pumps and environmental sanitation facilities.
Where the relevant facts and legal elements are established, these practices may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity within the meaning of Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, depending on the nature and context of the acts and the applicable elements of each offence. This includes conduct involving the intentional infliction of severe suffering or serious injury to physical or mental health, as well as the imposition of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population, where the relevant legal requirements are satisfied.
These practices also conflict with the protections afforded under Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognise the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. They further raise serious concerns regarding compliance with Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States Parties to take appropriate measures to combat disease and malnutrition, with due regard to the dangers and risks of environmental pollution.
In light of these documented developments, the American Center for Justice (ACJ) calls on the United Nations, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen and the Humanitarian Coordinator to move beyond expressions of concern and condemnation and take concrete, effective measures to exert sustained pressure on the Houthi militia to immediately and unconditionally reopen all roads and access routes leading to Taiz.
ACJ further calls for safe and sustained access to fuel, humanitarian relief supplies and medical materials, and for municipal sanitation teams to be granted safe access to waste disposal sites so that waste collection and removal operations can resume without further delay.
ACJ urges the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to launch an immediate emergency response. This response should include supplying the Taiz Cleanliness and Improvement Fund, hospitals and water pumps with the fuel necessary to maintain essential operations, as well as providing funding for urgent environmental sanitation campaigns to remove tonnes of accumulated waste and address areas at risk of disease outbreaks before the public health situation spirals out of control.
At the same time, ACJ calls on international accountability mechanisms and the UN Human Rights Council to ensure that the siege of Taiz and the deliberate disruption of healthcare facilities and environmental sanitation services are documented and investigated as conduct that may constitute war crimes, where the requisite legal elements are established.
ACJ also urges the relevant international authorities to consider imposing targeted international sanctions on Houthi leaders whose responsibility for administering the siege and preventing fuel supplies from entering the city is established, and calls for those responsible to be held accountable through the competent judicial mechanisms, in accordance with applicable international law.
Issued by the American Center for Justice (ACJ)
25 October 2026
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