Civil Society Groups Demand Urgent UN Action Against Impunity for Yemen Crimes

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For nearly seven years the people of Yemen have been victims of innumerable war crimes and human rights abuses.

Until last month the fact that the UN Human Rights Council’s Group of Eminent Experts (GEE) was documenting crimes by all parties to the conflict and reporting them to the world attested to a commitment to address widespread impunity for such crimes. It signaled to civilians in Yemen that Member States of the United Nations were not turning a blind eye to their suffering.

But not anymore. Saudi Arabia, backed by the United Arab Emirates, the leaders of a military coalition in the Yemen conflict, lobbied Human Rights Council members to end the GEE’s impartial monitoring and reporting. As a result, Council members narrowly rejected a resolution whose adoption would have renewed the GEE’s mandate, dealing a serious blow to accountability efforts.

As the Netherlands’ ambassador to the UN in Geneva rightly summed it up, by ending the GEE, the Council has “failed the people of Yemen.”

The international community cannot stand by and allow that vote to be the last word on accountability efforts for abuses and war crimes in Yemen.

The undersigned organizations call upon the UN General Assembly to move quickly and establish a new international accountability mechanism for Yemen. The suffering already inflicted on civilians in the country demands this step to address impunity in the ongoing conflict and send a clear warning to perpetrators on all sides that they will be held accountable for war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

All parties to the conflict in Yemen have perpetrated widespread and systematic abuses, including the killing and injuring of tens of thousands of civilians. Since 2015, the Saudi and UAE-led coalition has conducted scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and injured civilians and destroyed or damaged homes, hospitals, schools, markets, and other civilian infrastructure, and has allegedly armed and supported local armed groups and militias. Houthi forces have fired mortars, rockets, and other missiles indiscriminately into heavily populated areas, including cities, in Yemen, as well as launching ballistic missiles indiscriminately at populated areas in Saudi Arabia. Warring parties have prevented life-saving humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it. The criminal conduct of all parties to the conflict has claimed many thousands of civilian lives and caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The undersigned organizations call upon the UN General Assembly to establish an independent and impartial body that would investigate and publicly report on the most serious violations and abuses of international law committed in Yemen, while also collecting and preserving evidence and preparing files for possible future criminal prosecution. Such a strong mandate is required to ensure not only that the serious crimes under international law committed in Yemen be exposed to the world, but also that potential avenues of criminal accountability may be effectively exploited in the future to address impunity and provide effective redress to victims.

This is an ambitious goal, but the General Assembly has risen to the challenge before, when grave, widespread, and persistent abuses demanded it. For example, in 2016, the General Assembly created the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to collect, preserve, and analyze evidence of the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria. In 2018, the Human Rights Council created a similar mechanism for Myanmar in the wake of the 2017 crimes against humanity and possible genocide committed against Rohingya Muslims. Recognizing the urgent need for accountability in Yemen, dozens of UN Member States have already urged the international community to “actively explore further alternative mechanisms” for monitoring the human rights situation.

UN General Assembly Member States can and should create such an accountability mechanism for Yemen and ensure it is provided with adequate resources to conduct its task. It is the least they can do for those who have endured immeasurable suffering for nearly seven years.

The people of Yemen need justice. And justice begins with investigations and accountability. The time to act is now.

The full list of signatories follows (87 as of February 1, 2022):

1. Action on Armed Violence (AOAV)
2. ACAT-France
3. Acción Solidaria on HIV/aids
4. Africa Center for Security, Governance & Research
5. Alakhar For Peace And Development Centre
6. Alkarama for Human Rights
7. Al-Amal Developmental Feminism Foundation 
8. ALQST for Human Rights 
9. Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School 
10. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
11. Amnesty International
12. Australian Centre for International Justice
13. Avaaz
14. Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
15. Bridges for Yemen
16. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
17. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)
18. CAMPAÑA COLOMBIANA CONTRA MINAS
19. Centre for Social Impact Studies
20. Changemaker Norway
21. Civilis Human Rights
22. CIVICUS
23. Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic
24. Comisión para los Derechos Humanos del Estado Zulia (Codhez)
25. Conflict and Environment Observatory
26. Control Arms 
27. Daoo Foundation for Rights& Development
28. DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)
29. Defense Foundation for Rights and Freedoms
30. Frontline Human Rights 
31. Democracy School
32. Development House
33. Dhameer Organization for Rights and Liberties
34. European Center for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
35. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
36. Femmes des medias pour la justice au Congo
37. FOMICRES
38. Ffed Rural Development Assocition 
39. Global Action to Prevent War and Armed Conflict
40. FundiPau (Fundacio per la Pau)
41. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
42. Global Legal Action Network
43. Gulf Centre for Human Rights 
44. GobiérnaTec (Venezuela) 
45. Human Life Foundation for Development and Relief 
46. Human Rights Now
47. Human Rights Information & Training Centre- HRITC 
48. Human Rights Watch (HRW)
49. Hearts On Venezuela
50. International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
51. Human Rights Monitor Organization 
52. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
53. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
54. Innovation for Change Middle East and North Africa
55. Le Réseau d'action sur les armes légères en Afrique de l'Ouest, section Côte d'Ivoire (Le RASALAO-CI)
56. Liberia Action Network on Small Arms
57. MENA Rights Group
58. Mwatana for Human Rights
59. “My Rights” – Foundation for Women’s Political Empowerment
60. Partners Foundation 
61. PAX
62. Fadf Foundation for Rural Development 
63. Peace Track Initiative
64. People's Federation for National Peace and Development (PEFENAP)
65. Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo
66. Réseau d'Action sur les Armes Légères en Afrique de l'Ouest Section Togo (RASALAO-WAANSA-TOGO)
67. Project Ploughshares
68. Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
69. Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea) 
70. Saferworld
71. Salam For Yemen 
72. SAM Organization Rights and liberty 
73. Sisters' Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF)
74. Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society
75. Truth Justice Memory Center 
76. Vision GRAM-International
77. Vredesactie
78. Watch for Human Rights 
79. WITNESS
80. Win Without War
81. Women for Peace and Democracy Nepal
82. World Organisation Against Torture
83. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
84. Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation 
85. Yemeni Archive
86. Yemen Policy Center- Germany 
87. Yemeni Women Union Abyan