The United Nations Efforts in Yemen: Advancing Conflict

Resolution and Humanitarian Aid

Muhammad Shohib Wijaya1*, Amara Anissa Cynthia Prameswari 2

1
International Relations Department, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2 
International Relations Department, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia
1
oib.wijaya@gmail.com; 2amaraprameswari@gmail.com;

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze United Nations attempts in conducting conflict resolution regarding the
war of Yemen that started in 2014 that started many crises including economic, humanitarian, politics,
amongst others. This paper aims to give an overview of the war in Yemen and what has the United
Nations attempted to relieve the conflict as well as supporting world peace. This paper will show the
importance of the United Nations in handling conflict situations to maintain international peace and
security. The research methodology that is used in this paper involves comprehensive literature
review. Within the literature review analysis, writers will use various sources such as books, journals,
and official data relevant to the war in Yemen and the United Nations attempts to seek resolution. The
research findings uncovered that the United Nations has attempted to reconcile the war that is
happening in Yemen. Those attempts include providing humanitarian and development support, the
establishment of a special envoy, and other actions to ease the tension within Yemen itself. This
research will show the implementation of United Nations goals to maintain international peace and
security, protect human rights, deliver humanitarian aid and support sustainable development. As this
is an ongoing war, this paper will examine what actions that have been done by the United Nations
that are aiding in reducing aggression in the past and to what should the United Nations attempt in the
future.

Keywords: Yemen, War, Conflict Resolution, United Nations

 Introduction

President Saleh has ruled over Yemen for more than three decades (21 March 1947 - 4
December 2017) as the first president to rule Yemen after the unification. Even before the unification
of the North and South area, Yemen has a long history of being infiltrated by foreign powers. This
was true in large part due to its extremely important location at the Bab al-Mandab, which is the
entrance to the Red Sea. The latter serves as an exterior security door for the Suez Canal in Egypt,
which is the most significant sea route. Due to this, the politicians of Yemen, including President
Saleh, conducted foreign policy by using a complex political landscape to divide and co-opt numerous
internal power brokers who were always dependent on outside financial backing (Day & Brehony,
2020).

On 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring movement, people of Yemen demanded for President
Saleh to step down and people protested about the corruption that is happening within the government
and also the political, economic, and social stagnation that affected the nation and threatened to
deprive young people, even educated youth, of any chance for a stable future. In desperation, Saleh
turned to the international world for assistance in retaining power. Saleh had agreed to step aside at
first, but subsequently reversed his decision to leave office. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia eventually
forced Saleh to resign. Then, a transitional government established and within the transitional
document contains a demand to hold a National Dialogue Conference (NDC) within its two-year
timetable to address the whole range of political, economic, and social concerns, but after time it has
shown that it is incapable of fulfilling its promise. As the transitional administration devolved more
into dysfunction, economic and security situations throughout the country, particularly Sana'a,
deteriorated. Saboteurs, including Sale loyalists, Houtis, and southern believers, destroyed important
infrastructure, particularly electrical generation facilities in Marib, leaving the capital without power
for days or weeks at a time, reigniting the southern-northern strife (Feierstein, 2019). Finally, within
the period of ongoing conflict, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was elected President in 2012 for
a two-year transition period. Despite efforts since 2012 to reconcile political differences and agree on
a new constitution, negotiations between the parties collapsed in January 2014 (Loft, 2023).

Since then, the people of Yemen suffered a great loss and inquire help in every sector
including economic, education, humanitarian, security, health, and other sectors of life. It has
impacted lives of thousands of people making them unable to live a secure life in the midst of this
ongoing war. Mortality during a war is directly impacted by the deaths of both soldiers and civilians.
Adult men, who make up the majority of the combat forces, suffer the majority of direct violent
deaths. The development may be affected in the long run by these deaths. However, as a battle
continues, indirect mortality often outweighs direct death as a result of the collapse of the healthcare
system, widespread hunger, and poor living circumstances. Due to the destruction of productive
assets, the diversion of resources, and the harm done to human capital, conflicts typically result in
lower economic production. Numerous research on conflicts indicate that they have a moderating
influence on economic growth, with a few highlighting a particular decline in productivity (Moyer,
Bohl, Hanna, Mapes, & Rafa, 2019). Political uncertainty and risk can cause capital flight and a
decline in domestic investment. Strategically, parties may specifically target environmental
infrastructure (water, energy, waste, and sanitation) or transportation and telecommunications
infrastructure. Last but not least, unsanitary living circumstances have aided in the breakout and quick
transmission of disease. Attacks on vital water infrastructure and congestion of displaced
communities have deteriorated the quality of water and sanitation. Conflict also has an impact on
education by destroying school facilities, cutting back on funding, and prohibiting students from
attending courses.

Because this conflict raised many concerns regarding the lack of peace and human
development, the United Nations have fiddled their hands to help this ongoing war in both supporting
conflict resolution and humanitarian aid. The Gulf Cooperation Council or Saudi Arabia were the first
outside parties to attempt to resolve the dispute beginning in 2011. The GCC saw itself as a mediator
and frequently volunteered to organize talks. However, the UN special envoy was the one who carried
out the intricate negotiations of the agreement and served as a mediator during the GCC Initiative's
implementation. Since Jamal Benomar was chosen as the special envoy, the UN Secretary-General
has been involved in Yemen by offering his "good offices." The UN mission in Yemen does not,
however, have a formal mandate from either the Security Council or General Council. The
authoritative framework is still the GCC Initiative. Essentially, there are two phases to UN mediation
in Yemen. Supporting the political transition process outlined by the GCC Initiative was the focus of
the first phase. The special envoy's efforts to urge the conflict parties to restart the political process
were the main focus of the second phase, which got under way in April 2015 (Asseburg, Lacher, &
Transfeld, 2018).

Theoretical Framework

Different strategies can be used to manage conflicts. It can be unilateral, in which case one
side just stays out of disputes or leaves any future disputes alone, or it can be bilateral, in which case
the disputing parties engage in overt or covert discussions. Conflict resolution can also be multilateral,
in which case a third party, group, or state will step in amicably to assist the parties in resolving the
issues at hand. Conflicting parties have access to a variety of policy tools. These include preventing
conflicts, managing conflicts so that a political settlement can be reached, and resolving conflicts by
addressing all unresolved concerns. Some of these strategies, which range from conflict avoidance to
the use of force, are listed in Article 33 (1) of the United Nations Charter (Bercovitch & Scott
Sigmund , 2009). We shall emphasize mediation as a theoretical framework more in this paper. It is
been said that the most common type of peaceful third-party intervention in international conflicts is
mediation. It is founded on the need to support, not replace, the parties' own efforts in dispute
resolution. It is an approach of conflict resolution that is especially well suited to the international
setting, where there are many different political actors competing for limited resources or
influence and who only accept outside interference in their affairs when it is absolutely necessary and
clearly defined. Since mediation is both peaceful and voluntary, many states find it to be a desirable
choice. Although it will not be used in every conflict in international relations, mediation is likely to
be used in some of them. It is especially helpful when a conflict has lasted for some time, when the
parties' efforts have come to a standstill, when neither party is willing to tolerate additional costs or an
escalation of the conflict, and when both parties are willing to engage in direct or indirect dialogue,
accept some sort of outside assistance, and surrender some control over the conflict management
process.

According to a classic definition, mediation is a process where a neutral third person who is
agreeable to all disputants helps to encourage conversation so that parties can negotiate a settlement.
The presence of a third party can alter or lengthen a negotiating process. The assistance process aids
in the parties' voluntary agreement-making by preventing the use of coercion or the legal system. The
most crucial role of a mediator is to facilitate communication that reduces tensions and creates an
environment that is favorable for negotiation. A neutral third party's assistance in a negotiation is
meant to support communication that has been prevented by a conflict. By facilitating their dialogue,
the third party would establish good faith and confidence in their ability to come to fair compromises.
Since the disputants are supposed to be the main players, an impartial third party has no authority to
make decisions. Given that mediation relies on consent, both the procedure and the result should be
acceptable to the participants. If those in favor are not committed to the pursuit of a shared future, the
goal of mediation may need to shift from altering combative relationships to issue management. In
general, mediation's primary actions focus on resolving the current disagreement rather than
addressing behavioral issues. Even if the ideas for solutions can come from the parties, mediators may
offer suggestions or guidance regarding potential outcomes relating to each party's worries. The
formulation of the parties' stated interests is assisted. The finding of each party's bottom line can serve
as a basis for alternative recommendations. Mediators may try to increase the appeal of an agreement
by not only adding benefits but also removing loss for one party or both in order to settle civil wars or
disagreements between state entities (Jeong, 2010).
 Methodology
This article uses mostly qualitative research method by collecting secondary sources such as
official website, journal article, as well as books. The data collection techniques are mostly found on
the internet. Quantitative research was used too, some official number statistics were found through
official data from websites and official documents.

United Nations Mediation Attempts in Yemen

The negotiations have been backed by the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, the European Union
and the United States. The Agreement and the implementing mechanism of a two yearlong transition
process, which will be in place from November 2011 to January 2012, were agreed between the
government and opposition parties (United Nations, 2011). In the light of January 2018, it seems
highly unlikely that Yemen will reach a viable and durable peace agreement in the near future. Years
of mediation and conflict-resolution efforts have produced limited results, despite agreements signed
by the parties in 2011 (Agreement on the Implementation Mechanism for the Transition Process in
Yemen in Accordance with the Initiative of the Gulf Cooperation Council) 12 and 2014 (The Peace
and National Partnership Agreement) (Coppi, 2018).

The Arab world's upheavals since 2011 have resulted in civil wars in three countries: Libya,
Syria, and Yemen. The United Nations (UN) is involved in all three cases. Attempting to mediate
agreements between conflicting parties to bring about peace through power-sharing. The United
Nations has long played a leading role in efforts to end civil wars through mediation. Since the 1990s,
some of the longest-running civil wars have been resolved with the UN's overall command or
participation. The majority of these negotiated agreements were based on power-sharing
arrangements. Not so with the three conflicts under consideration here: all UN efforts to resolve them
through power-sharing have failed. Power-sharing agreements in Yemen and Libya have not
prevented or re-enacted conflicts. The UN Secretary-General has been involved in Yemen by
providing “good offices” since the Moroccan Jamal Benomar was appointed special envoy (April
2011 – April 2015). Mauritania's Ismail Ould Cheich Ahmed and a British man named Martin
Griffiths have taken Benomar's place since April 2015 until February 2018. However, the UN mission
in Yemen, OSESGY, does not have an explicit mandate from either the Security Council or the
General Council. The central framework remains the Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative. It is, in
essence, possible to split the UN's Yemen mediation into two phases. Supporting the Gulf
Cooperation Council initiative's policy transition process was an area of focus in the initial phase. The
Special Envoy's efforts to convince conflict parties to rejoin the peace process were addressed in
phase 2, which was launched in April 2015. (Asseburg et al., 2018).
 The first is to end the internationalized war through negotiations between the real main
parties, namely Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. The five P5 states and the coalition countries may be
represented here by a United Nations special envoy, who can also act as mediator. However, until the
Houthis and Saudi Arabia decide that it is time to compromise and negotiate, the United Nations
cannot achieve anything, regardless of the commitment, personal competence, and qualities of the
individuals concerned. As soon as this happens, it will be up to the Yemenis throughout the country to
move to the second phase by seeking reconciliation and setting up mechanisms for the reconstruction
of their country, which is facing major development challenges: water scarcity, limited natural
resources, weak governance, weak skills, and a rapidly growing population (Lackner, 2020).

United Nations Humanitarian Aid in Yemen

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of
February 2019, there were more than 24 million people in Yemen in need of assistance and the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported over 2 million displaced people and
refugees as a result of the conflict. Civilians are increasingly affected as the conflict persists, creating
an ongoing humanitarian crisis. In their work, 13 NGOs report that they are working with each other.
There seemed to be several forms of collaboration between local NGOs and international
organisations, such as the UN Children's Fund UNICEF or other United Nations agencies. In
particular, three organisations mentioned that they only shared information and experience with IGOs,
but that they were not implementing partners. Similarly, some groups mentioned conducting formal
assessments and field surveys for organisations such as UNICEF. Secondly, some organisations listed
attendance at meetings of organizations such as UNICEF or working through public authorities. In
addition to providing information during meetings, local organisations would also send periodic
reports and reports on gaps they have identified in the field of Yemen to these International
Governance Organisations. With that being said, the humanitarian aids by the United Nations are not
very direct unlike most cases when UN directly donated the humanitarian aids, most aids were
delivered through the NGO (Alqatabry, 2020). The contribution of UN’s humanitarian aids would be
very helpful in the future in order to rebuild the civil society development in Yemen after the civil
war.

Conclusion
Despite that all the Yemen conflict is still happening, The United Nations has attempted
numerous efforts by providing mediation between the civil wars, inviting other states especially the
GCC along with the members in order to solve the long decades of conflict as well. Despite that
humanitarian aids were not directly sent through the government nor the people, the United Nations
also collaborated with local NGOs as well in order to solve the humanitarian crisis which was
impacted and caused by the civil wars causing the people are not able to access their daily needs. The
United Nations as well as the GCC has a huge impact and a prominent role as conflict resolution
support through mediations and aid support.

Acknowledgement
Writers recognize that the case discussed in this paper is an ongoing conflict and resources are
limited to mainly reports that have to be relied on for accurate and up to date research. However, this
dispute has started more than one decade ago so writers has found several journals that explains about
this particular issue. The issues that writers have found in journals are mainly topics about the cause
of the Yemen War, the impact of the war, and conflict resolution attempts in the early days.
Meanwhile, the information that are gained from reports are an up-to-date situation of the war, the
specific numbers of humanitarian cases affected by the war, and possible attempts in the future to
advance conflict resolution. Because of the time limitation of this paper, writers can only do research
within the year 2023, therefore writers wish that other writers can continue with the topic regarding
conflict resolution and humanitarian aid in the midst of the Yemen war in near future. Writers also
hope that this writing can be used by other writers as a reference in writing paper in similar topics.

About the Authors

Muhammad Shohib Wijaya and Amara Anissa Cynthia Prameswari are both final year
International Relations student in Universitas Muhamamdiyah Yogyakarta located in Yogyakarta,
Indonesia. Publishing has been a dream for both writers to achieve during their time as International
Relations student. This paper creates a momentum for writers as their writing to be published for the
first time.
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