clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

NGOs: Saudi Arabia must be held to account for human rights violations in Yemen

May 22, 2018 at 5:12 am

A malnourished baby receives medical treatment at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights and Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Clinic have submitted a new report to the United Nations that is highly critical of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

Radhya Almutawakel, Chairperson of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights said: “No one has been spared in the war in Yemen—for more than three years, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes have killed and injured thousands of civilians, destroying homes, schools, hospitals, and even hitting weddings and funerals.”

Almutawakel went on, “When governments review Saudi Arabia’s human rights record at the UN later this year, they must examine Saudi conduct not only in Saudi Arabia but also in Yemen, and offer recommendations to promote human rights and a peaceful solution to the conflict.”

The report also describes Saudi Arabia’s continued restriction of vital food imports and humanitarian aid to Yemen which has lead to what the United Nations has described as the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”

Yemen is currently facing the largest recorded cholera epidemic, and more than eight million Yemenis are at acute risk of famine.

Read: Yemen war ‘escalating’, says UN human rights chief