SANA’A - The National Democratic Institute (NDI), in collaboration with Yemen’s Legal Affairs Ministry, held a workshop in Sana’a to discuss the transitional justice draft law on April 25-26, 2012.

Transitional justice was applied in some countries such as Morocco, South Africa, and Indonesia in the wake of sectarian, ethnic or political conflicts. Through this law, it is hoped that conflicting sides will reach a settlement in a period of political shift.

With participation of four tribal alliances, the transitional justice law and its role in creating equity in Yemen were debated.

Sources from the NDI told the Yemen Times that more than 130 sheikhs from Yemen’s Tribe Alliance, Yemen’s Tribe Conference, Marib- Shabwa Tribe Alliance and other independent sheikhs participated in the workshop. They pointed out that other workshops will include high-ranking sheikhs and religious scholars will be held next month.  

During the workshop, experiences of tribal sheikhs in cases of traditional justice were reviewed.

In the conclusion of the workshop, a committee comprised of 14 high-ranking sheikhs was formed to present suggestions from the workshop in meetings with international organizations, civil society and the Legal Affairs Ministry, with the aim of including them in the transitional justice draft law.

NDI held workshops in March for political parties and civil society organizations in which it discussed the experiences of five countries in transitional justice: South Africa, Chile, Morocco, Tunisia and Indonesia.

A workshop held for civil society organizations on March 11-12 was followed by a presidential decree that categorized all civilians who were killed in peaceful protests as martyrs, and salaries were appropriated to their families.

The Legal Affairs Ministry has prepared a transitional justice draft and national reconciliation law and called all the concerned parties to present their proposal observations and opinions on the law.

Workshops witnessed heated debates among the participators due to the fact that the issue of transitional justice is still new in the Yemeni political arena.  

Legal Affairs Minister Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi said that a legal team has put the final touches on the transitional justice draft law. He pointed out that the draft law was referred to the concerned ministerial committee for approval, which will be submitted later to the cabinet, the state-run Saba news agency stated.

He said many political parties, civil society organizations, unions and youth took part in the discussions that led to the draft.

The main purpose of the transitional justice law, according to Al-Mekhlafi, is to end conflict between Yemenis by compensating the victims of local crises that occurred between 1994 and 2012, while maintaining the immunity clause included in the Gulf Cooperation Council power transfer initiative signed by parties in the interim government.