Juvenile Delinquency in Yemen: Amidst the Obstacles of the Conflict and Future Challenges

Lamya Yahya Al-Iryani
Former Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Childhood
President of School of Peace Organization
Consultant of “Children in Juvenile Correction Facilities” Issue

Childhood is undoubtedly the most beautiful and important stage of a person’s life. It can lay the foundation for a person’s future or turn them into a dangerous criminal. Childhood embodies innocence, curiosity, and a thirst for exploration and learning. It’s the most crucial stage in shaping a child’s personality and determining their future path.

However, this sensitive stage can face immense challenges when children find themselves in conflict-ridden environments, as is the case in Yemen. The conflict, nearing its tenth year, has devastated infrastructure and severely impacted children’s social and psychological well-being. This includes juvenile delinquents who have become entangled with the law, facing intensified suffering, robbed of their childhood and essential rights that would help them build a better reality for themselves and a brighter future for Yemen, their country.

When conflicts erupt, children become the fuel and suffer the most. They pay the price with their present and future, their dreams, and hopes. Yemeni children face a painful and deteriorating reality that surpasses the limits of human suffering and comprehension. Children are the most affected by insecurity, poverty, lack of basic services, soaring rates of acute malnutrition, and the spread of physical and mental illnesses.

The painful reality in Yemen is reflected in harsh images resulting from escalating armed conflicts, economic deterioration, natural disasters, and collapsing infrastructure. All of this makes children’s daily lives fraught with immense challenges, including health, educational, psychological, and social crises.

Millions of children have been deprived of education due to the destruction of schools, family displacement, the collapse of the education system, and rising poverty. We must consider the fate of children outside school walls, the challenges they face, and where their paths might lead. Harsh paths and falling into cycles of crime and violence become their reality.

It’s important to examine the sequence of events and how the conflict played a cruel role in driving some children towards delinquency, for reasons beyond their innocent understanding and frail bodies, and what remains of their hopes and security.

Since the conflict began in March 2015, attacks on schools, teachers, and educational infrastructure have had devastating consequences on the country’s education system and the opportunities for millions of Yemeni children to receive an education. A large percentage of school students and technical institute students suffer from trauma caused by fierce conflicts. This trauma includes displacement from their homes, leaving their schools, communities, and friends, and the loss of family breadwinners. The lack of security to reach schools and the absence of learning materials have caused many children to suffer from severe depression, chronic anxiety, loss of hope, and an inability to cope with their harsh new reality. Cases of hysteria resulting from traumatic experiences have often led to delinquency, bullying, crime, and involvement in illegal activities. This has made them victims confined behind cold bars, deprived of their childhood and the right to a healthy life, affecting their physical and mental health and resulting in a devastated generation unable to build Yemen, becoming instead time bombs for society.

What I Want to Emphasize

Juveniles, whose cases are characterized by legal or social deviancy, are simply victims of harsh circumstances imposed on them by conflict, destruction, the cruelty of poverty, family breakdown, lack of education, and a society that is incredibly cruel to its youth. These children have been subjected to harsh social and psychological pressures that have sometimes driven them to commit acts against the law, perhaps in search of food or as a shocking involuntary expression of immense anger toward a society that does not respect their youth, provide them with the safe environment they deserve, or offer the services that would make them productive members of their country and its future.

In this article, I will address some of the factors that negatively affected these children during the conflict, the challenges they faced, and the impact the conflict has had on their situation and reality. I will also shed some light on the “Social Guidance Center for Boys” in Yemen, which is one of the places trying to support these children, despite its many difficulties.

Reasons Negatively Affecting Juveniles

Nearing the tenth year of this devastating conflict, the impact extends beyond the economy, infrastructure, and internal peace, reaching into the daily lives of children. Those in conflict with the law have suffered greatly. Here are some key reasons driving juvenile delinquency:

1. Harsh Economic Conditions and Widespread Poverty: This conflict has economic roots, and its devastating effects have targeted the economy as a whole. We’re experiencing a shocking economic crisis; many families have lost their breadwinners, and those who remain employed often face unemployment. This has led to an unprecedented deterioration in living standards. It’s become incredibly difficult for many families to meet basic needs like food, clothing, and education. This has pushed some children to the streets to seek income through illegal means, like theft or begging, to help their families. It’s a cruel irony that the very law that failed to protect them or provide them safety now defines their predicament – a reality they didn’t choose.
2. Family Breakdown and Displacement: The conflict has displaced millions of families, leading to family breakdown and forced relocation to unfamiliar areas, leaving behind their past, memories, and familiar lives. Imagine children who lose family support and find themselves in strange environments, exposed to negative influences that push them towards law-breaking behavior.
3. Forced Recruitment of Children: Many children, particularly juveniles, are forced to participate in armed conflicts by certain parties, becoming part of a conflict whose reasons, they don’t understand and whose outcome they can’t predict. This directly impacts their view of life and the law. Participating in military actions affects children’s psychology, turning them into aggressive, violent individuals, often leading them toward crime after their military service, unless empowerment and reintegration programs are provided.
4. Lack of Education: The conflict has crippled the education system. Educational institutions have suffered partial or complete destruction and military use. Sometimes, in the “humanitarian” aftermath of this destruction, they become shelters for the displaced. Children are left without proper educational environments. The lack of education makes children more vulnerable to behavioral deviations; they lack constructive activities and psychological support. Instead of spending their time in schools, they end up on the streets.
5. Lack of Legal and Social Protection: Despite national laws protecting children and Yemen’s commitment to international conventions, the legal and social system has collapsed due to the ongoing conflict. This lack of protection leaves children vulnerable to exploitation and arbitrary arrest without adequate support.

Challenges Faced by Juveniles During the Conflict

After a decade of conflicts that have devastated everything, juvenile delinquents in Yemen face numerous challenges that complicate their situations. These include:

1. Psychological and Emotional Conditions: The conflict has left deep scars on the mental health of children in Yemen, especially those involved in legal disputes. The trauma of witnessing violence, being torn from their former lives, entering a harsh new reality, and losing family members or seeing their homes destroyed directly affects their behavior, making rehabilitation difficult for authorities.
2. Lack of Family Support: The conflict has left many children orphaned or forced to become the sole providers for their families due to the death or disability of a parent. Many kids in trouble with the law have lost family support, creating a huge emotional void and increasing the likelihood of behavioral problems.
3. Destroyed Infrastructure: The destruction of schools, care centers, and other social services has made it tough for kids to meet basic needs, leading them toward risky paths.
4. Stigma and Societal Harshness: Kids in trouble with the law are often seen as “delinquents” or “criminals” instead of victims of circumstance. This makes it hard for them to reintegrate into society after serving their time and requires high-quality intervention programs, which sadly, Yemeni institutions lack.
5. Abuse and Detention: Juvenile detainees are often held in inhumane conditions and abused by authorities or other inmates. The lack of oversight in detention centers leads to frequent human rights violations.

The Social Guidance Center for Children in Contact with the Law

Amidst these challenges, some institutions try to help kids in trouble with the law. One such place is the “Boys’ Social Guidance Center,” one of the few offering care and rehabilitation to these children through:

1. Psychological and Social Rehabilitation: The center provides individual and group therapy to help kids cope with trauma. Psychological support is key to rehabilitation, helping them regain self-confidence and reintegrate into society.
2. Education and Vocational Training: The center offers educational and vocational programs to help kids reintegrate after their stay. These programs include basic education and job training to help them find work and escape poverty and crime.
3. Family Support: The center works to reconnect kids with their families, encouraging ongoing communication to strengthen family ties and ensure future family support. They also try to follow up to ensure the child stays out of trouble.

Challenges Facing the Center

Despite the efforts of the Boys’ Social Guidance Center, it faces many challenges hindering its ability to provide effective services, especially over the past ten years:

1. Lack of Funding: The center suffers from a severe lack of funding due to Yemen’s collapsed economy. This directly impacts the quality of services offered to children, affecting psychological care, education, and even basic needs.
2. Deteriorating Infrastructure: The center’s infrastructure has been damaged by the conflict. Workshops and facilities are crumbling. The dilapidated infrastructure makes it difficult to provide a safe and suitable environment for rehabilitation. The private sector needs to step up and provide more serious support.
3. Shortage of Qualified Staff: The conflict has scattered skilled staff who worked at the center for years. There’s a severe shortage of specialists working with juveniles, whether in mental health, education, or social work. This puts pressure on existing staff, limits their capacity to handle the growing number of children, and lowers the quality of service.
4. Limited Societal Perspective: Children residing at the center face negative societal views, often being seen as criminals. This hinders rehabilitation and reintegration, making the center’s work more difficult. Community awareness programs are needed to change misconceptions about children who break the law.

Recommendations for Improving the Situation of Juvenile Offenders in Yemen

1. Strengthen Legal Protection for Juvenile Offenders: Activate national child protection laws in line with international conventions like the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its protocols. Ensure children are detained only as a last resort, for the shortest possible time, with a focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment. Children are victims, not criminals. Provide free legal aid to ensure fair and transparent trials.
2. Provide Safe and Qualified Environments for Social Rehabilitation: Improve juvenile rehabilitation centers to create safe environments providing appropriate psychological, social, and educational care for children in contact with the law. These centers should offer comprehensive programs that enhance life and educational skills, in line with international standards for institutional care.
3. Combat Poverty and Unemployment to Strengthen Family Security: Develop economic and social policies aimed at reducing poverty and unemployment, which drive children to break the law. Support affected families and provide sustainable job opportunities to reduce economic pressures that push children to the streets and into illegal activities.
4. Reform the Education Sector and Integrate Juvenile Offenders: Rebuilding schools destroyed by the conflict and providing educational opportunities for juvenile offenders is essential for reintegrating them into society. Develop flexible educational programs for juvenile offenders who have missed years of schooling, in line with the right to education enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
5. Expand Psychological and Social Rehabilitation Programs: Due to the conflict’s severe impact on children’s mental health, expand psychological support programs for juvenile offenders, and training specialists in dealing with traumatized children. These programs should be designed according to global best practices in supporting children’s mental health in conflict zones.
6. International Cooperation to Support Rehabilitation and Integration: The Yemeni government should strengthen cooperation with international organizations and civil society to implement comprehensive programs for the rehabilitation and reintegration of juvenile offenders, in line with the UN Principles for the Rights of the Child and the Sustainable Development Goals related to child welfare.
7. Role of the Private Sector and Civil Society: The private sector and civil society must work together to support and improve the situation of children in Yemen, drying up the sources of crime and violence.

The Conclusion

Yemeni kids who’ve gotten into trouble have it rough. The conflicts have messed up their lives, making them vulnerable to bad behavior and getting unfairly judged and stigmatized – it’s way too harsh for kids their age. Even though places like the Boys’ Social Guidance Center are trying their best, they face huge challenges that make it hard to really make a difference.

These kids need ongoing support from society and the government to give them a better future. Rehabilitating them isn’t just the job of these institutions; it’s everyone’s responsibility. We all need to work together.