Current Threats to Freedom of Navigation in the Red Sea between Piracy, Insurgency and the Use of Force

Piracy is, as is widely known, the most ancient international crime, whose contemporary forms attract the attention of both scholars and international organizations and raise several questions on existing rules of international law concerning this specific subject matter – notably, the relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)1 – and other legal issues, such as the use of force.2 One of the instances where the resurgence of piracy nowadays clearly appears is the Red Sea where the Houthis, a Yemen-based rebel group, has been targeting several ships, seriously jeopardizing navigation in the area and breaching human rights of persons onboard. The intended purpose of this paper is, through the lens of current events in this region, to assess the capacity of international law to adequately frame contemporary threats to freedom of navigation and commerce and to provide effective legal tools to repress them.