Uh… I’m pretty sure you need to take ships for ransom or other material gain before you’re considered a pirate. The Houthi blockade is just that, a blockade (definitely needs to be more targeted though), and frankly I care a lot more about opposing genocide than freedom of navigation.
(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:
(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;
Unauthorised people tried to board shipping with the right of innocent passage. They are pirates.
Uh… I’m pretty sure you need to take ships for ransom or other material gain before you’re considered a pirate. The Houthi blockade is just that, a blockade (definitely needs to be more targeted though), and frankly I care a lot more about opposing genocide than freedom of navigation.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982
The “blockade” fits detention in (a). The missiles they fired at the ships fit the violence.
For private ends. That part is important.