UN Report on war crimes in Yemen

New UN Report Says All Parties to Yemen Conflict May be Responsible for War Crimes, reports JustSecurity.

A damning new United Nations report, published last week, implicates all parties to the conflict in Yemen in possible war crimes. This includes the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the government of Yemen and the Houthi armed group. The report, written by the group of eminent experts (GEE) appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate the conflict in Yemen, calls on the international community to “refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict in Yemen.”

Some of its key findings include: 

The Saudi and UAE-led coalition (the coalition) airstrikes have caused “most of the documented civilian casualties” in the Yemen conflict.
 The coalition’s severe air and naval restrictions on Yemen had a foreseeable and devastating effect on the civilian population. The experts had “reasonable grounds to believe” these restrictions were imposed in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
 UAE personnel have arbitrarily detained individuals and subjected detainees to torture, sexual violence, and other forms of cruel-treatment in facilities under their control.
The Houthis and the forces aligned with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (who was killed in December 2017) are responsible for numerous abuses, including the shelling of civilians, impeding the delivery of humanitarian supplies and commercial goods, subjecting individuals to arbitrary detention, committing acts of cruel treatment and torture, restricting freedom of expression and belief, persecution of the Baha’i minority, and forcibly conscripting and enlisting children under 15.
 All parties to the conflict have severely restricted freedom of expression by harassing and impeding the work of human rights defenders, journalists and activists.
The government of Yemen and UAE-backed forces are responsible for perpetrating acts of sexual and gender based violence.
 All parties to the conflict are responsible for the forcible conscription or enlistment of children into armed forces or groups, and have used them to participate actively in hostilities. The experts specifically note that they received reports that the Houthi-Saleh forces “forcibly recruited children in schools, hospitals and door-to-door.”