UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Second Committee, the Economic and Financial Committee, Rapporteur: Yemen

10 year old Nujood Ali, left, sits with her mother, Shuaieh. "Her impoverished parents had married her off to a man more than three times her age, who beat her and forced her to have sex." (Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2009)

Mission of the Second Committee, the Economic and Financial Committee, of the General Assembly: "The Economic and Financial Committee...deal[s] with issues relating to economic growth and development such as macroeconomic policy questions (including international trade, international financial system and debt), financing for development, sustainable development, human settlements, poverty eradication, globalization and interdependence, operational activities for development, and information and communication technologies for development.." (General Assembly - Economic and Financial Committee web-site, "Second Committee")

Term of office: 2008-2009

Yemen's Record on sustainable development, human settlements, poverty eradication, globalization and interdependence, operational activities for development, and information and communication technologies for development:
"The government limited the Internet content its citizens could access, using commercially available filtering technology and by controlling its two Internet service providers, TeleYemen (operators of the service YNET) and YemenNet, through the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology. Human rights and other NGOs complained that the government restricted what journalists could write and how citizens used the Internet through a variety of intimidation tactics...Children were trafficked by adults, older children, and loosely organized syndicates who helped them cross the border by donkey, automobile, or foot. They worked predominantly in hotels, casinos, and nightclubs. Government investigations revealed that extreme poverty was the primary motivation behind child trafficking, and the victims' families were almost always complicit. The traffickers were often well known by, if not related to, the family; parents were either paid or promised money in exchange for allowing their children to be trafficked. Many cases were also later discovered to be instances of illegal immigration....The Akhdam (an estimated 2 to 5 percent of the population) were considered the lowest social class. They lived in poverty and endured persistent social discrimination. The government's Social Fund for Development provided basic services to assist the group. During the year human rights groups reported that some immigrants of African origin had difficulty in securing [Ministry of Interior] permission to marry citizens...Many children were required to work in subsistence farming due to family poverty." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2008, Yemen)

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