TEN YEARS WITHOUT PAY: A LEGACY OF DEPRIVATION

A New Study by the American Center for Justice (ACJ) Exposes the Systematic Destruction of Yemen’s Public Sector and the Human Tragedy of Over One Million Unpaid Government Employees

Michigan – The American Center for Justice (ACJ) has revealed in its latest study, “Ten Years Without Pay: A Legacy of Deprivation,” released in May 2025, that over 1.2 million public sector employees in Yemen—including nearly 240,000 teachers—have been deprived of their salaries since September 2016. This prolonged salary suspension has triggered one of the country’s most severe and enduring economic and humanitarian crises.

The study highlights the catastrophic consequences of salary cuts, describing them as a deliberate and systematic assault on the public sector. For millions of Yemenis, public sector salaries are the only source of income. ACJ’s investigation, based on victim testimonies and policy analysis, documents the far-reaching economic, social, and psychological toll of this mass violation. The salary deprivation has affected all types of employees—civil and military, doctors and professors, men and women alike.

Evidence gathered by ACJ shows that this crime extends beyond non-payment of wages. It includes arbitrary dismissals, exclusion, and politically and sectarian-motivated job replacements. Dozens of such cases, particularly in the education sector, are documented in the report. The study also links the collapse of essential services such as education, healthcare, and public administration directly to the salary suspension. As a result, state institutions have been reduced to hollow structures, devoid of both operational and human capacity.

From a legal perspective, the denial of salaries constitutes a clear violation of international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ILO conventions, and the Yemeni Constitution. The report further concludes that the deliberate and ongoing nature of this deprivation may amount to a crime against humanity under Article 7(k) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as hunger is being used as a tool for political subjugation and psychological torture.

ACJ holds the Houthi group primarily responsible for withholding tax revenues and other public funds collected in areas under its control, by refusing to transfer them to the Central Bank. However, the internationally recognized Yemeni government also bears responsibility for failing to secure a dignified livelihood for citizens. While both parties exchange blame over the salary crisis, Yemeni public employees continue to pay the highest price—amid troubling international silence and a lack of decisive pressure on the perpetrators.

The American Center for Justice calls for the full depoliticization of the salary issue, and urges the immediate and unconditional resumption of salary payments with retroactive effect. The international community must exert serious and sustained pressure on both the Houthis and the Yemeni government to resolve this crisis and prevent the salary file from being used as a bargaining chip in political negotiations.

The center warns that continued inaction in the face of this crisis amounts to indirect complicity in a systematic crime aimed at dismantling the remaining structures of the Yemeni state, and reducing hundreds of thousands of citizens to hostages of hunger, humiliation, and political blackmail.