Since 2014, Yemen has been embroiled in a brutal civil war between the national government and Houthi rebels. International support for both parties has been considerable, with Iran providing millions of dollars in aid to the Houthis, including in the form of military aid. Meanwhile, a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia provides military support for Yemen’s government forces, going so far as to contribute over 10,000 soldiers to the conflict and a near-total blockade. The United Nations became involved in the conflict as war crimes were committed by all parties to the conflict. The U.N. imposed economic sanctions against individuals and organizations who are known to perpetuate war crimes or take actions that prolong the war. While U.N. sanctions are inherently designed to coerce their targets, in the case of U.N. sanctions in Yemen, their extremely targeted nature and subsequent ineffectiveness suggests that they may have been designed to serve more as an intermediate measure between the use of force and mere condemnation.  

Origins of the Conflict

North and South Yemen united in 1990 after the fall of the Soviet Union. North Yemen was backed by the United States and its Western allies while South Yemen was backed by the Soviet Union. Historically, Yemen’s power base was diffused amongst a variety of tribal and local organizations. Between 1990 and 2014, factions such as the Houthi movement and Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), rose up and attempted to secede from Yemen multiple times. In 2014, as a result of high oil prices and a divided military, Houthi forces revolted and captured the capital city of Sana’a. While President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi initially resigned and fled, he returned to Yemen in September of 2015 with the support of a Saudi-backed coalition including Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and others. Amidst the conflict, AQAP took up arms against government and coalition forces, carving out enclaves in parts of Southern Yemen. 

The United Nations attempted to mediate a peace deal between the warring factions, however accusations of U.N. support for the government were used to build the Houthis power base. Negotiations stalled in 2016 as violence escalated and civilians increasingly became the target of attacks. 

The Nature of the Sanctions Regime

The United Nations Security Council’s sanctions regime for Yemen is robust on a technical level; however, it is fairly small in scope. Only 12 individuals and one entity are listed by the U.N. as targets of the asset freeze. In 2015, the United Nations imposed a targeted arms embargo on individuals and entities designated by the UNSC’s sanctions committee. 

Following reforms to the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions policies, the Yemen sanctions regime is one of its most technically advanced. Listed individuals have a variety of rights, including the right to contest their listing, as well as the right to retain a modicum of assets to sustain themselves and their families. Moreover, the targeted arms embargo, while not a particularly novel concept, is far more specific in the 2015 Resolution than it has been in previous resolutions. Arms are only banned from being provided to specific individuals or entities, rather than the region as a whole. Past resolutions have provided exceptions to arms embargoes for certain factions (in most cases the government), but never has an embargo been applied to specific individuals.  

Effective or Merely Symbolic

Sanctions on Yemen have not been particularly effective: they have caused economic ruin while targeted individuals are not substantially constrained from carrying out attacks on civilians. In the months after the beginning of the civil war, Yemen’s economy devolved into the informal sector. Yemen’s economy is heavily reliant on imports to provide basic amenities such as food and humanitarian supplies. However, with the imposition of an arms blockade by Saudi Arabia and its coalition, much-needed food and humanitarian supplies faced delays and barriers to entry into Yemen. Thus, informal smuggling networks have thrived, but they mainly focus on bringing weapons into the country rather than supporting humanitarian efforts to import much-needed medical and food supplies. Moreover, the sanctions were ineffective in bringing an end to attacks on civilians, war crimes, or encouraging a peace process, all of which were goals set out by the Security Council in its resolutions. While in 2022 there was a 6-month ceasefire, it fell through after the parties failed to renew it, and attacks against civilians have persisted. In this respect, UN sanctions have clearly failed to achieve their goals. 

However, the economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations may not be meant to coerce the warring actors into a peace deal. Rather, the sanctions are a tool which the UNSC has used to signal the illegality of certain operations being carried out by actors involved in the conflict.  Moreover, sanctions are an appropriate intermediate measure which is more severe than merely condemning the sanctioned individuals but do not require the expenditure or political effort that sending peacekeepers would. When faced with the prospects of mustering the political will to send Peacekeepers  or allowing fundamental principles of the United Nations to be derogated, the Security Council opted for economic sanctions. Sanctions are an intermediate solution whereby the United Nations can demonstrate its commitment to the issue while not spending enormous amounts of funding and political capital.  

In conclusion, while the United Nations deployed a very technical set of economic sanctions with the intent of combating human rights abuses and promoting the peace process in Yemen, they are more of a symbolic gesture than a measure that truly constrains the actors it targets. Through demonstrating its commitment however, the United Nations has also provided an example to some of its member states, inspiring the creation of far more restrictive sanctions regimes from the United States or United Kingdom for example. As the conflict begins to draw to a close, particularly with the recent peace negotiations, the nature of the sanctions regime against Yemen is likely to change, and eventually be repealed.