The Unnoticed Demise of International Humanitarian Law in Yemen

Rasa - The United Nations and member states are so busy fighting for irrelevant issues, they hardly seem to notice that through their indifference they risk becoming complicit in Saudi and American war crimes in Yemen.

News ID: 431230

Date: 25 July 2017 - 23:46

RNA - International Humanitarian Law is on the wane, yet the problem is nowhere at the UN. Common to all is a progressive loss of vision, of long term planning and solutions, with politics and votes used just for self-serving interests, in particular at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council. Here, no one bothers to talk about children dying because of the Saud-led, US-backed war and blockade on Yemen. No one:

Human rights groups are urging the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to include the Saudi-led coalition in a child rights’ “shame list” after documenting grave violations against children. Save the Children and the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict have documented at least 23 Saudi-led, US-backed airstrikes which injured or killed children, prompting an urgent call for the UN to help protect children caught in the midst of the deadly two year-long conflict.

“Everywhere you go in Yemen you see the devastation caused by airstrikes…all parties have been responsible for the unnecessary deaths of children in Yemen, and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition is among them,” says Save the Children’s Yemen country director Tamer Kirolos. “The UN Secretary-General must put the interests of children first – and hold all of those responsible to account,” he continues.

The human rights group has compiled evidence of “grave violations” in an effort to push Secretary-General Guterres to include the Saudis and Americans in a report on child rights violations in conflict, expected to be released next month.

The annual Children and Armed Conflict report documents grave violations including the killing and maiming of children and attacks on schools and hospitals. It also includes an annex which names and shames perpetrators of such violations. The Saudi coalition was initially listed in the 2016 report, only to be removed a few days later after the Persian Gulf state threatened to withdraw funding from critical UN programs.

The 2016 report found that the Saudi coalition was responsible for 60 percent of all recorded child deaths and injuries. This pattern has only continued as Save the Children and Watchlist documented the killing and maiming of more than 120 children. In one incident, multiple airstrikes on a market in Hajjah in March 2016 left 25 children dead and four injured. Multiple bombings of schools and hospitals have also been recorded, including attacks on two different Médecins Sans Frontières-supported hospitals.

Beyond the immediate and devastating effects on children, such attacks have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in the country including the world’s worst cholera outbreak. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, children under the age of 15 account for 40 percent of the almost 300,000 cholera cases and make up a quarter of cholera-related deaths. The 1.8 million acutely malnourished children under five are particularly vulnerable to such communicable diseases.

The illegal war on Yemen cannot be allowed to grind on and children’s lives shouldn’t be blighted in Yemen. These damning reports offer an opportunity to stand up for children caught in today’s brutal conflict to say that their lives and rights have value. In order to hold perpetrators accountable, the list must be executed without fear or favor at the UN, where every party to the conflict that has committed grave violations is included.

Though listing the Saudis is not an end in itself, failure to include a key party to the conflict will set a dangerous precedent that others around the world will take note of. It would also betray the families whose loved ones were killed, the children who suffered life-changing injuries in airstrikes.

Yemen’s children deserve accountability for the attacks committed against them by the Saudis, the Americans, and their allies: Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan. This is important. More than 14,000 children have been killed or injured by coalition airstrikes since March 2015.

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