National Reconciliation Movement
September 11, 2022: The political track of the NRM hosted a meeting with Abdel Aziz Al-Oqab, head of the “Fiker for Dialogue and the Defence of Rights and Freedoms” organization, who indicated that peace opportunities are available if a timed mechanism is available, and the provisions of the current truce include an effective monitoring mechanism. He said that Sana’a is not only the Houthis, as there are other political forces that exist and should not be neglected.
August 9, 2022: The NRM’s branch in Egypt (NRM-Egypt) held in Cairo a joint meeting with Dr. Atef Maghawry (Vice President of the National Progressive Unionist Party and member of the Egyptian Parliament) and Representatives of the Civil Alliance for Peace and National Reconciliation in Yemen (CAPNR).
In the meeting, which comes as part of a series of consultations held by NRM to discuss the latest developments in Yemen, several issues were discussed, especially those related to the Truce and the opportunities for sustainable peace and stability.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Nabila Al-Hakimi, head of the human rights track, Judge Dr. Yahya Al-Mawry, head of the newly established NRM-Egypt, and Dr. Ahmed Al-Sabari, member of NRM-Egypt, and from (CAPNR) Prof. Hamoud Al-Awdi and Mr. Anwar Khaled.
Dr. Maghawry expressed his support for NRM’s efforts to stop the war and reach a just and comprehensive peace in Yemen. NRM’s representatives expressed their high appreciation and thanks for the continuous position of Egypt in support of the Yemeni people and praised its continuous and effective historical role in receiving Yemenis and overcoming all the difficulties they might face while staying in Egypt.
March 21, 2022: The education track of the National Reconciliation Movement organized a symposium on Sunday to analyze the education situation in Yemen. In this event, Dr. Yousef Al-Raymi, Head of the Planning and Follow-up Division at the Educational Research and Development Center, and Dr. Shakib Bajrash, a former lecturer at the College of Education in Aden and a worker in the field of curricula, especially the field of mathematics were the two main guest speakers.
In her welcoming speech, Dr. Nooria Al-Asbahi, Head of the Education Track in the Movement, spoke about the Track’s vision and plans to contribute to the reform of education in Yemen, and to provide short and long-term solutions, expressing the Track’s welcome to join the expertise and competencies interested in the education sector in Yemen.
Then, Dr. Yousef Al-Raymi reviewed the effects of the war on access to education, how the war caused high rates of educational and learning losses, which led to the deterioration of the quality of education, and how the war affected the achievement of the principle of equality and equity in providing education for all children throughout the Republic of Yemen.
As for Dr. Shakib Bajrash, in his intervention, he spoke about a number of factors that have affected education since the September and October revolutions, including those that led to Yemen’s exit from the Davos Education Quality Index in 2016. One of these factors is the presence of an unqualified cadre of teachers, which He was not trained to do the job of an educational teacher. In addition to the role of the family and society, which was not conducive to supporting the student in the various educational stages, in addition to the existence of old educational curricula that have not been developed.
The interventions and discussions of the participants in the symposium, including experts working in the educational sector, as well as those interested in the education sector, contributed to the development of practical suggestions that would help limit the deterioration in education in times of war.
The symposium concluded with a number of recommendations, including the importance of completing the track to prepare a unified national vision, with the mechanism of the white paper, which is prepared by many experts in the track, and from national competencies inside and outside Yemen, to advance the peace process and the future of education, and link it to sustainable development, so that education does not break In Yemen about the temporal context. It was also agreed to prepare explanatory guides for a number of issues, namely: a skills database, a professional database, preparing educational and training channels, defining a national framework for education, and distance education.
It is worth mentioning that the education path of the National Reconciliation Movement consists of a group of academic and professional experiences in the field of education working for the purpose of reforming the education sector in Yemen, and benefiting from other experiences in the rest of the countries.
18 March 2022 – To all Yemeni parties, entities and authorities. We address this appeal to you to draw your attention to the tragedy of our country and the plight of our people, a plight that they did not choose but found themselves a victim of, and the inflation and collapse of the currency left behind, along with the killing and destruction of infrastructure, and the collapse of services.
Today, we have become certain that the decision to end the war requires a brave initiative from you and from our brothers and friends.
In this context, the National Reconciliation Movement welcomes the initiative of the brothers in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which considers the peace and welfare of the Yemeni people an integral part of the security and welfare of the region, calling on all parties aiming to end the conflict that has been going on in our country for a period that exceeded seven years and left a humanitarian crisis and economic collapse Political fragmentation and social fragmentation are unprecedented and threaten the worst if we do not seek today, sooner than later, to stop this war and start building peace and achieving stability and development that Yemen needs to recover at all political, economic, humanitarian, security and social levels.
This generous invitation coincides with the advent of the blessed month of Ramadan, with its sentimental implications for upholding the values of love, peace, cooperation and solidarity. On this occasion dear to the heart of every Muslim, the National Reconciliation Movement calls on all Yemenis without exception to meet this call and rally around it because it is almost the last opportunity before the country sinks more and more into the abyss from which it will not be possible to get out.
Accepting this invitation is evidence of the responsibility before the Yemeni people and the seriousness in their quest to end the war and conflict, the exacerbation of the humanitarian crisis, and all the catastrophic repercussions of the armed conflict. Whoever turns to dialogue and peace simply declares that he is a party not benefiting from the conflict and puts the people’s interest above narrow personal and factional interests in solidarity with male and female citizens, and history will record these positions for the future and future generations.
The importance of this call from our brothers in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf also comes in the most sensitive international times since the Second World War and in the exacerbation of the conflict in Ukraine, which includes the reluctance of the international community from the hotbeds of conflict around the world and its focus on this dangerous conflict that does not threaten Europe not only, but threatens international peace and security. This forces us urgently to turn the page on the war in a way that cannot be postponed, because Yemen and the Arab Gulf states are part of the international system, and whether we like it or not, we will find ourselves affected by these international conflicts that will exacerbate the suffering of Yemenis.
Once again, we salute and appreciate the efforts of our brothers in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf for this invitation and their continuous support for our country. We also appreciate the Yemeni components and all the leaders, women and men, who responded positively and with sincere and sincere intentions to accept this invitation. We call on those who are still hesitant to be positive and not hesitate to accept the hand of peace. Extended out of the dark tunnel of war to the prospects of peace promising and promising stability for Yemen and our regional neighbours and the world.
The war in Yemen divides and weakens all who take part in it. This is where civil forces must rise to the challenge, present solutions and alternative projects through mobilizing the masses and pressuring leaders into ending the war.
Monday, February 28, 2022 – Sunday, February 27, the Culture and Media Track of the National Reconciliation Movement organized a symposium on the possible role of intellectuals and media professionals in contributing to ending the war in Yemen, reaching peace, and the prospects for unifying the efforts of the various peace currents and components within Yemen and beyond.
This came in an event which hosted the great Yemeni thinker and politician, Mohamed Abdalsalam Mansour, the Assistant Secretary-General of the Yemeni Scientific and Linguistic Academy, and advisor to the Ministry of Culture. He discussed the difficulties, failures and challenges faced by the ruling authoritarian regimes on the one hand and a society that still suffers from the legacy of centuries of backwardness and poverty on the other. Pointing out that the past forces have been fighting against intellectuals and the enlightened and marginalizing them in their quest to seize power and wealth, which is the main reason for disrupting the wheel of development and modernization in Yemen after the September and October revolutions, and causing the situation Yemen is in now.
Mansour pointed out that the civil forces that did not engage in the military conflict have made great efforts for years in an attempt to avoid the outbreak of war, and were able to gather the forces of the conflict at the dialogue table and make it clear to them that the war will destroy and divide Yemen and weaken everyone, and that they will be nothing but means in the hands of the enemies of Yemen to pass this project.
He added that all the conflict forces admitted that the dispute between them is political, but unfortunately they used social and ethnic agitation to mobilize the masses and supporters, and that the enemies of Yemen from abroad were able to exploit the “agitated psychology of the forces of the internal conflict” to seize power, and used them to make their divisive projects succeed.
Mansour called on the civil forces that did not engage in the conflict, and those who realized that the war is harmful to everyone, to mobilize the masses for peaceful pressure through demonstrations and protests to stop the war, reach peace and restore the building of the state, and that they should continue to communicate directly with the conflict forces and clarify The danger of war on everyone and the impossibility of any party winning over the other by force of arms, and that they present solutions to these forces to stop the war first and then pave the way for building a transitional national government that works to address the effects of the war and prepares for elections in which everyone participates.
At the end of his speech, he pointed out the importance of media professionals joining civil blocs calling for peace and playing their positive and influential role in mobilizing the masses.
On his part, Dr. Hamdan Dammag, director of the Culture and Media track in the movement, stresses the importance of the movement continuing to communicate with personalities and civil groups calling for an end to the war, which are working in various regions of Yemen, and building relations of understanding, cooperation and coordination with them in order to intensify and integrate efforts. Pointing to what the intellectual has today, after all these years of war, the duty and the national role to engage with the civil forces calling for peace, stressing that the current continues to extend its hand to all in accordance with its national consensus constants and its commitment to its independent political and cultural discourse.
The attendees of the two-hour symposium contributed to enriching the discussion with their questions and interventions, unanimously agreeing on the importance of continuing such activities in order for Yemenis to regain hope of stopping the war and correcting the compass towards the right path to a better future.
It is worth mentioning that Mr. Muhammad Abdul Salam Mansour, in addition to his poetic and intellectual works, is a legal advisor, arbitration judge, lawyer, translator, article writer, and one of the prominent activists in calling for an end to the war in Yemen and the achievement of peace.
The political track of the National Reconciliation Movement (NRM) organized on Saturday, January 29, a virtual symposium with the senior researcher at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, Mr. Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani, and Professor Ayoub Al-Hammadi, member of the Supervisory Council of the movement, on Yemen’s political events. The military escalation, challenges and overlapping internal, regional and international complexities, the multiplicity of parties to the conflict at home, and the disparity in the interests of regional and international parties were elements in the discussion.
Despite the ambiguity of the scene and the many challenges, foremost of which are the military escalations and the continuous economic and security deterioration, peace is still possible, the participants agreed. The repercussions of all these events on the humanitarian situation has to compel the Yemeni forces, elites, parties and entities, regardless of their different orientations, to rally around a project that achieves the common interests of Yemeni society with the region, because the continuation of the war not only threatens the security and stability of Yemen, but also threatens regional and international peace and security.
The attendees agreed that ending the conflict, at the very least, is not what Yemeni society aspires to, but rather a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace, which requires the necessity of civil forces rallying around a comprehensive national project that builds confidence, ends the war, defines the transitional phase, and establishes the foundations for building the state on the rules of national consensus and within a renaissance project that helps from now on. First, to mitigate the repercussions of the war and its catastrophic effects, and those who have been afflicted with despair and frustration to the spaces of hope and leave the furnace of war to the prospects of peace possible by exploding the energies of the people and directing them towards construction and development.
The attendees noted that the NRM has drawn up a comprehensive peace map (the national project) and it includes several stages and various files that take into account the common denominators of all political spectra and national forces, partners and parties, as well as the common interests of Yemen with its regional neighbors and with international actors.
Amman, January 31, 2022: A meeting was recently held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that brought together the head of the foreign relations track in the National Reconciliation Movement (NRM), Dr. Shadi Basurra, Marion Lalisse, the Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Yemen, Ambassador of Germany to Yemen Hubert Jaeger, and Mohamed Ayoub Labissi – First Secretary of the EU delegation to Yemen.
The meeting discussed developments in the political situation and the recent military escalation in Yemen, and ways to advance the political process and the possibility of the conflict’s parties returning to the negotiating table. In the meeting, the necessary mechanisms to enhance partnership and coordination between the National Reconciliation Movement and the European Union were discussed, and the NRM’s role as a platform that contributes to communication and influence on the parties to the conflict with the aim of converging views, and finding practical and realistic mechanisms to end the political stalemate that is accompanied by a wave of military escalation.
It is worth noting that the National Reconciliation Movement is a national political gathering that includes tens of Yemeni figures from all disciplines and experiences inside and outside Yemen. It aims to present a project to end the war and address its effects, and to promote national reconciliation through a comprehensive national recovery based on a just and comprehensive peace agreement that paves the way for building the modern Yemeni state that responds to the aspirations and interests of the Yemeni people.
The National Reconciliation’s Human Rights and Humanitarian track organised symposium on 22nd January entitled “Access to justice and activating the principle of non-impunity.” In the event which was live on Facebook, a group of distinguished Arab and international experts discussed the various issues reflecting on case studies from the region and Yemen.
Houria Mashhour, a founding member of the NRM and former Minister of Human Rights, spoke on the important role the movement plays in ending the war and establishing a just, comprehensive and lasting peace, one which can only be achieved by implementing transitional justice and human rights principles. Mashhour reviewed the Yemeni experience in preparing for the transitional justice approach since 2011 until now and the challenges it faced, noting that the first circulation of this concept in Yemen came after the recommendations of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the need to implement transitional justice following the events of 2011 to address the excessive violence against peaceful protesters in various regions Republic. The issuance of the transitional justice law faced great difficulties, but the National Dialogue Conference addressed the issue with great interest, which was embodied in its outputs based on international standards. Houria Mashhour called for the necessity of including transitional justice in any future peace formula and that it be among the priorities of any agreement to provide justice to the victims and close these files in a fair manner after compensating them and making reparations for their damages, stressing that the right of victims in the crimes committed against them does not fall into a statute of limitations, and if there are no local courts, there are courts international justice.
Naji Haraj, Executive Director of the Geneva International Center for Justice and an expert in international human rights mechanisms, reviewed the most important cases in which a German court ruled against war criminals in Syria, the most important of which was the trial of former officer Anwar Raslan a week ago and his life imprisonment sentence, where he was accused of killing 38 people and torturing 4,000 people, in addition to The rapes, all of which were classified as crimes against humanity during the war, considered this a historic ruling and the first of its kind that gave hope to all those who seek to see a light of justice, followed by the trial of a Syrian doctor two days ago for his contribution to committing crimes against humanity and the use of his profession to torture detainees in prisons and detention centers. Haraj emphasized the success of those trials as a result of the concerted efforts of activists, opponents and the media by documenting what happened since the beginning of the conflict, in addition to the nearly 60 testimonies of survivors of these crimes. The expert, Naji Haraj, touched on the universal jurisdiction that looks into war crimes and crimes against humanity that are internationally prohibited in other countries and addresses them, especially with the failure or failure of local courts to try their perpetrators with impunity. He stressed that no war criminal can circumvent international obligations with impunity.
Raja Al-Talli, member of the Advisory Board of the Office of the International Envoy in Syria, spoke about the Syrian experience in transitional justice, stressing that there can be no justice without peace or peace without justice. She said that murder and torture are one of the most prominent heinous crimes in her country for 11 years, in addition to other serious crimes, the most important of which are the siege and starvation to death, the use of chemical weapons, the forced demographic change of a number of areas, the displacement of more than half of the population of Syria and other crimes. And she touched on the importance of raising awareness about the importance of transitional justice and harmonizing peace and justice tracks because it is an essential part of any upcoming peace process, and continuous thinking about how to implement it from an early age and achieve the ultimate goal of ensuring that such crimes are not repeated, building countries that respect rights and humanity, and restructuring the security services so that Such violations are not repeated, and she stressed the importance of the documentation that is relied upon to achieve justice.
It is worth noting that this symposium, which took place on the virtual zoom platform, was hacked and the hackers tried to disrupt it with obscene pictures, loud music and loud sounds, as the organizers cut the event and then resumed it with a new link that was circulated only within the framework of the members of the movement and the speakers, and one of the most important challenges that emerged was the interruption of the Internet in Yemen, which limited the ability of members of the movement or those interested in participating in this event of paramount importance to what is going on in Yemen or in countries experiencing violent transformations and conflicts in the region.
The Education Track of the National Reconciliation Movement carried out its first symposium entitled “Education in Yemen: Between Reality and Hope” in a series with the same title yesterday, Saturday, November 27, 2021, through a public virtual event led by three of the most prominent specialists in this field.
In the first session, Dr. Daoud Al-Hadabi discussed the importance of education in Yemen to achieve sustainable development and presented frightening statistics about the reality of education in Yemen and potential solutions to advance the education sector. As for the second session, Dr. Muhammad Al-Mahfali talked about the impact of the military and political conflict in Yemen and how it affected the education sector, especially the displaced children in the various governorates of the Republic, laying out some possible solutions in light of this situation.
For his part, Professor Ayoub Al-Hammadi, member of the Supervisory Board of the movement, spoke about the possibility of advancing the education sector in Yemen, the importance of education in the renaissance after wars, and the success stories of post-war peoples such as Germany. Dr. Nouriya Al-Asbahi, head of the education track, spoke about the vision of the education track in the movement in contributing to education reform in Yemen and the short and long-term solutions for the track.
The education track consists of a group of academic and professional expertise in the field of education who work under the goal of reforming the education sector in Yemen and benefiting from other experiences.
A representative of NRMs leadership met with the Yemen team of German Berghof Foundation team on Tuesday 2nd Nov. in order to discuss ways of cooperation and present the movement’s vision of peace in Yemen.A summery of the movement’s background and roadmap for peace was presented by Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf, member of the supervisory council and co-founder, which was followed by NRM’s strategy towards economic and monetary reform as presented by Dr. Mohammad Zemam, founding member and lead of the economic recovery file at the movement.
Professor Mahdi al-Qadri, director of the health track, referred to the National Reconciliation Movement as a new national actor whose role is growing among the Yemeni parties in its quest to achieve an end to the war through inclusive peace building processes. Asmahan Al-Eryani, member of the state-building track in the movement, pointed out the importance of supporting the movement’s programs and operations.The Berghof Foundation team presented a snapshot of their programs in Yemen, both at the local level in some of the targeted governorates, and at the political level in managing a dialogue between the various political parties.
At the end of the meeting, Mrs. Hooria Mashhour, co-founding member of the movement and member of the Supervisory Council, thanked the attendees for their time and efforts in Yemen, hoping to continue communication and opening new avenues for cooperation regarding common interests such as community safety, economic reform, and support for the political process towards comprehensive and sustainable peace in Yemen.