YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC—PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF YEMEN: AGREEMENT ON THEESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMENAuthor(s): Nassib G. ZiadéSource: International Legal Materials, Vol. 30, No. 3 (MAY 1991), pp. 820-823Published by: American Society of International LawStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20693569 .

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820

YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC-PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF YEMEN: AGREEMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN*

[Done at San'a, April 22, 1990; entry into force, May 21, 1990] +Cite as 30 I.L.M. 820 (1991)+

Introductory Note

-Iz ?

Nassib G. Ziade

Yemen Arab Republic (north Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (south Yemen) merged on May 22, 1990 to form a unified Republic of Yemen

thereby ending twenty years of tension, border disputes, civil wars, tribal

conflicts and ideological differences. Prior to the merger, on May 21 south Yemen's Parliament?the Supreme People's Council?and north Yemen's Parliament -the Shura Council?ratified concurrently the Agreement on the Establishment of the Republic of Yemen and the Organization of the thirty-month Interim Period

("the Agreement") together with the draft Constitution of the Republic of Yemen

("the Constitution"), in accordance with Article 8 of the Agreement. Only a

group of more traditionalist parliamentarians in the north, objecting to the fact that Article 3 of the Constitution makes Islamic shari'a the main source of

legislation and not the exclusive such source, abstained from voting when the northern parliament approved ratification.

San'a, the north Yemeni capital, was designated as the political capital of the unified Republic of Yemen (Article 128 of the Constitution) while

Aden, capital and main port of the south, is intended to become the economic center of the united Yemen.

General Ali Abdallah Saleh, president since 1978 of north Yemen, was

elected by the parliaments of both states to head the five-man council that will rule the newly unified state of 13 million people. To counter-balance this

appointment, Mr. Ali Salem Al-Beidh, secretary general of south Yemen's ruling Socialist party, was chosen by the two parliaments to be his deputy. These two

appointees together with three other leading politicians?two northerners

(Mr. Abdul Karim Al-Arshi, former speaker of the parliament and Mr. Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani, former prime minister) and one southerner (Mr. Salem Saleh Mohammed who was Mr. Al-Beidh's former deputy)?form the Presidential Council which will oversee the actual implementation of unification over the next thirty months.

A thirty-month interim period began on the date of the entry into force of the Agreement (May 21, 1990). During this period, the parliaments of north and south Yemen will merge (Article 3 of the Agreement). At the end of the interim period, country wide elections are scheduled to be held, with men and women voting for a new House of Representatives. It may be noted in this respect that the interim period coincides with the remainder of the five-year terms of both parliaments.

The Constitution provides that domestic laws and decrees of both parts of the unified state will remain in force in the part in which they were enacted, until they are amended in accordance with the rules provided for in the

*[The Introductory Note and English translation from the official Arabic text were^ prepared for International Legal Materials by Nassib G. Ziad?, member of the I.L.M. Editorial Advisory Committee.]

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821

Constitution (Article 134). Further, in a joint letter addressed by the former Ministers for Foreign Affairs of north and south Yemen to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on May 19, 1990, it is stated that "all treaties and

agreements concluded between either the Yemen Arab Republic or the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and other States and international organizations in accordance with international law which are in force on 22 May 1990 will remain in effect, and international relations existing on 22 May 1990 between the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and the Yemen Arab Republic and other States will continue."

On a number of occasions, most significantly in 1971 and 1981, the two Yemens reached agreements to unite, but political upheavals prevented actual

merger. At an even earlier point, in 1958, north Yemen was part of a short lived union with Egypt and Syria. Although the Yemeni merger has more

geographical and historical logic than the 1958 merger with Egypt and Syria did, Yemenis may find it problematic to reconcile the free enterprise system and conservative ways of the north with the south's socialist system and more liberal social practices. The traditionalist north Yemen, by far the more populous of the two previous states, with a population of some 10 million, is a society largely dominated by tribe and religion. In contrast, south Yemen has promoted a secular culture since it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1967. In the wake of the political changes taking place in Eastern Europe, south Yemen

began its own version of perestro?ka, a process which set the scene for the

negotiations that ultimately led to the creation of a unified Yemen.

I.L.M. Content Summary

TEXT OF AGREEMENT - I.L.M. Page 822

Art. 1 [Merger of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Republic of Yemen into the Republic of Yemen, effective 26 May 1990]

Art. 2 [Interim 5-member Presidential Council; election of a President and Vice-President ; election of Council members]

Art. 3 [House of Representatives]

Art. 4 [45-member Advisory Council]

Art. 5 [Formation of the government]

Art. 6 [Technical team on administrative integration]

Art. 7 [Decrees and laws of the Presidential Council]

Art. 8 [Entry into force]

Art. 9 [Duration]

Art. 10 [Abrogation of the previous Constitutions]

[Signed at San'a on April 22, 1990]

[Signatures]

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822

TEXT OF AGREEMENT

Article 1: On the 26th of May 1990 (corresponding to the first of Dhi'l

Qa'da of the Hegira year 1410), there shall be established between the State of the Yemen Arab Republic and the State of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (both parts of the Yemeni Homeland) a full and complete union, based on a merger, in which the international personality of each of them shall be

integrated in a single international person called "the Republic of Yemen." The

Republic of Yemen shall have one legislative, executive and judicial power.

Article 2: After the entry into force of this Agreement, a five-member Presidential Council of the Republic of Yemen shall be established for the

interim period. At their first meeting, the members of the Council shall elect a President and a Vice-President for the duration of the term of the Council.

The members of the Presidential Council shall be elected at a joint session of the Offices of the Presidency of the Supreme People's Council and the Shura Council. Members of the Presidential Council shall take the constitutional oath at the joint session before assuming their functions.

The Presidential Council shall exercise all the powers authorized by the Constitution.

Article 3; A thirty-month interim period shall begin on the date of the

entry into force of this Agreement. During this period, the full membership of the Shura Council and of the Supreme People's Council shall constitute the House

of Representatives; in addition, 31 representatives shall be appointed by a

decree from the Presidential Council.

The House of Representatives shall exercise all the powers provided for in the Constitution; however, it shall have no power to elect a Presidential Council or to amend the Constitution. Any vacancy, for any reason, in the House of Representatives shall be filled by appointment to be made by the Presidential

Council.

Article 4: At its first meeting, the Presidential Council shall issue a

decree establishing an Advisory Council of 45 members. The Council's functions shall be defined in the same decree.

Article 5: The Presidential Council shall form the Government of the Republic of Yemen which shall undertake all the functions authorized by the Constitution.

Article 6: At its first meeting, the Presidential Council shall entrust a

technical team to prepare a framework for reconsidering the administrative

division of the Republic of Yemen so as to reinforce the Yemeni unity and

eliminate the effects of partition.

Article 7: The Presidential Council is empowered to issue, at its first

meeting, decrees which shall have the force of law regarding the emblem, flag and national anthem of the Republic. At the same meeting, the Presidential Council shall issue a decree convening the House of Representatives in order to

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decide upon the following items:

a) approving decrees and laws issued by the Presidential Council;

b) voting confidence in the Government on the bas is of the stabsnenb

[of its program] which it shall submit;

c) calling upon the Presidential Council to submit the Constitution to a general, popular referendum before the thirtieth of November

1990;

d) approving draft basic laws submitted by the Presidential Council.

Article 8: This Agreement shall enter into force upon its ratification,

together with the draft Constitution of the Republic of Yemen, by the Shura

Council and the People's Council.

Article 9: This Agreement shall govern the entire interim period. Upon ratification, the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Yemen shall be deemed in force during the interim period, in accordance with the previous Article and subject to the other provisions of this Agreement.

Article 10; The Constitutions of both previous Yemeni States shall be deemed

abrogated upon ratification of this Agreement and of the Constitution of the

Republic of Yemen by the Shura Council and the People's Council.

Signed in San*a on the twenty-seventh of Ramadan of the Hegira year 1410, corresponding to the twenty-second of April 1990 A.D.

Colonel Ali Abdallah Saleh President of the Republic Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces

Secretary-General of the General People's Congress

Ali Salem Al-Beidh

Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Yemeni Socialist Party

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