“The UN Human Rights Council should create a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged serious laws-of-war violations by all parties in Yemen since September 2014,” the release read.
HRW is joined by 22 other human rights and humanitarian organizations in a call to the UN for an investigation, including Amnesty International, and International Federation for Human Rights.
“Since the Saudi Arabia-led international military coalition began operations in Yemen in March 2015, nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed, the majority from coalition airstrikes, according to figures released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Pro-Houthi forces have also repeatedly fired mortar shells and rockets indiscriminately into populated areas,” the release explained.
HRW stressed that the coalition-imposed blockade could amount to a war crime.
“With commercial imports accounting for 90 percent of Yemen’s food and fuel supplies, the coalition-imposed blockade may amount to starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, a war crime,” it said.
Moreover, the release claimed that the coalition has used cluster munitions in Yemen’s civilian-populated areas, wounding and killing civilians.
“Non-state armed groups have repeatedly violated the medical neutrality of healthcare centers and healthcare and aid workers,” HRW added.
Yemen has been in a state of turmoil since 2014, when Houthi rebels took control over large parts of the country, prompting Hadi to flee.
Recent estimates from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show that almost 1.5 million people are currently internally displaced in the country due to the warfare. Over 21 million Yemeni citizens are deemed to be in current need of humanitarian protection or assistance.
