The UN’s Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution calling for an international investigation into human rights abuses in Yemen. The move follows months of pressure from human rights organizations and NGOs to investigate abuses that continue to occur in the war-torn country.
The international and regional human rights experts called upon to carry out the investigation will have a minimum of one year to carry out their mandate, which covers violations of applicable international law committed in Yemen since September 2014.
“As a child rights organization on the ground in Yemen for years, Save the Children is pleased that abuses of rights will finally be formally and thoroughly investigated by a team of eminent experts,” said Save the Children’s Director of Policy Cicely McWilliam.
“While we are hopeful this could mean justice for Yemen’s children who continue to suffer atrocious abuses, we will need to ensure the investigative team includes experts on grave violations against children, who are provided adequate access and funding to fully carry out their mandate.”
Save the Children is particularly pleased at the role Canada played in efforts to secure this resolution. It wouldn’t have been possible without the leadership of the Dutch and the efforts of Canada along with the support of a core group of member states including Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland that pushed for the international independent investigative mechanism.
Save the Children has been on the ground responding to the acute needs of children impacted by conflict, cholera and malnutrition. The deadly combination of war, disease and hunger has pushed more than 20 million people, or 80% of the population, in need of humanitarian assistance. Over 11 million children have been impacted by the crisis, including an estimated 1,676 children killed between March 2015 and June 2017, while some 2,760 children have been maimed. In the same period, 1,8000 incidents of recruitment of children as child soldiers have been confirmed, and over 200 attacks on schools and more than 100 attacks on hospitals.
“Thousands of cases of child rights violations have been confirmed already, and many others have yet to be confirmed. Our teams fear this may just be the tip of the iceberg, so having a proper investigation begin as soon as possible will be paramount to ensure documentation and evidence of the extreme violations taking place.”
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