THIMUN

Country: Yemen
Flag meaning: The flag of Yemen was adopted in 1990 when North
Yemen and South Yemen united. The flag consists of three equal
sized horizontal stripes- the top being red, middle being white and
the bottom one being black. The meaning behind the colors of the
flag is historically linked to the Arab people and the Islamic faith for
centuries. The Red stripe represents the bloodshed required for the
freedom. The White stripe represents hope and the Black stripe
represents the end to the countrys dark past.
Leader: Abd Rubbuh Mansur Hadi is the President of Yemen who is
a Yemeni major general and politician and became the president in
February 2012. Previously, he was the Vice President form 19942012.
Politics in Yemen: presidential representative democratic republic,
where the President of Yemen is the head of state, while the Prime
Minister of Yemen (who is appointed by the President) is the head of
government. Although it is notionally a multi-party system, in reality
it is completely dominated by one party, the General People's
Congress, and has been since unification. Executive power is
exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both
the government and parliament. The Judiciary is theoretically
independent but in reality it is prone to interference from the
executive branch.
Yemen was ruled by Imams for hundreds of years. The imams of
Yemen and later the Kings of Yemen were religiously consecrated
leaders belonging to the Zaidiyyah branch of Shia Islam. They
established a blend of religious and secular rule in parts of Yemen
from 897. Following the Yemen suffers from a highly fractured
political landscape, which is the legacy of the regime of President Ali
Abd Allah Saleh, who came to power in 1978 and formally resigned
his office in February 2012.
Unification: The Republic of Yemen (ROY) was declared on 22 May
1990 with Saleh becoming President and al-Baidh Vice President. For
the first time in centuries, much of Greater Yemen was politically
united. A 30-month transitional period for completing the unification
of the two political and economic systems was set. A presidential
council was jointly elected by the 26-member YAR advisory council
and the 17-member PDRY presidium. The presidential council
appointed a Prime Minister, who formed a Cabinet. There was also a
301-seat provisional unified parliament, consisting of 159 members

from the north, 111 members from the south, and 31 independent
members appointed by the chairman of the council.
Uprising: The 2011 Yemeni protests followed the initial stages of the
Arab Spring and began simultaneously with the Egyptian Revolution.
The protests were initially against unemployment, economic
conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's
proposals to modify the constitution of Yemen. The protestors'
demands then escalated to calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to
resign.
The situation however quickly deteriorated into a widescale
uprising, with various insurgency campaigns consolidating into an
armed tribal struggles, both between the armed opposition and
terror groups vs. the government and among themselves.
Eventually
Saudi-brokered
GDP per capita
1,473.10 USD (2013)
agreement on
Saleh's
Population
24.41 million (2013)
resignation and
2012 Presidential
election saw the
installation of
Abd Rabbuh
Mansur Hadi as an interim President. Hadi has been presiding over
political reform and national reconciliation and was supposed to
serve only two years in the post. On November 2013 U.N. envoy
Jamal Benomar told The Associated Press Hadi will remain president
after February 2014 because the transition is not likely to be
completed earlier due to "obstruction" from former regime loyalists.
Houthi urgency: In northern Yemen, where a large Shia Zaydi
population lives, Saleh's regime has for decades alienated this
community through discriminatory religious and political policies.
Saleh, with the help of some elements in Saudi Arabia, had
promoted strongly anti-Zaydi groups of Salafi Muslims in this region.
Feeling beleaguered and marginalized, the Zaydis organized
themselves politically in the early 2000s under the aegis of a family
of religious scholars called the Houthis. They began by criticizing
Salehs pro-U.S. policies, which led to armed confrontation and a
series of wars with the Yemeni army. This ultimately dragged the
Saudi Arabian military into the fray, leading to considerable property
destruction and a large refugee problem. In 2011, as Saleh's power
waned in the provinces as a result of the uprising against him, the
Houthis took control over large areas of the north, but still remain
outside the political framework of government.
GDP: 35.95 billion USD (2013)