The American Center for Justice welcomes the memorandum issued by five UN Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups of the Human Rights Council and supports its call for direct legal accountability for the Ansar Allah movement, as the de facto authority in Sana’a, regarding the arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance of lawyer and human rights defender Abdulmajid Sabra.

The Center notes the gravity of the facts documented by the Special Rapporteurs. On September 25, 2025, Houthi security and intelligence personnel stormed Sabra’s office and arrested him because of a Facebook post in which he criticized the authorities’ restrictions on citizens’ right to commemorate the anniversary of the September 26 Revolution. The Center draws attention to the significance of the UN memorandum’s inclusion of the “cultural courses” mechanism, deeming it a repressive tool employed by security agencies for weeks or months to reshape the ideological convictions of political detainees. This mechanism is often accompanied by solitary confinement to break their will.

The Center endorses the legal basis adopted in the UN document, which obligates the Houthi movement to implement Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and international human rights law. The Center agrees with the UN experts that the lack of international recognition of the de facto authority does not absolve it of the responsibility to guarantee the rights of individuals under its control. The isolation of lawyer Sabra and the lack of any information about him constitute a violation of peremptory norms of international law prohibiting enforced disappearance.

The American Center for Justice emphasizes the memorandum’s warning regarding the undermining of the legal protection system. It considers the targeting of a human rights lawyer who has defended victims of enforced disappearance a violation of the UN’s fundamental principles concerning the role of lawyers. This targeting aims to deprive society of its legal defense by intimidating human rights defenders and preventing them from carrying out their duties with immunity and independence.

The Center joins the demands of UN experts for the immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of lawyer Sabra, clarification of the legal basis for his arrest, and guarantees of his physical safety and right to a fair trial. It also calls for an end to the security agencies’ use of this mechanism to criminalize freedom of expression and monopolize public space.