JIAT has so far only released initial results on some 56 air strikes, in the vast majority of which the Coalition has been largely absolved of responsibility. While we appreciate the Coalition’s efforts through the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) to investigate some of these incidents, we find them insufficient. After the Coalition reportedly promised to tighten its rules of engagement, Human Rights Watch documented six Coalition airstrikes that killed 55 civilians, including 33 children, and hit multiple family homes, during a three month period between June and August 2017. In March of this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that the Coalition airstrikes resulted in over 61 per cent of all verified civilian casualties since March 2015. Minimize child casualties, if any, remain largely ineffective,” and found that at least 85 children were killed or maimed in 2017 in 10 Coalition airstrikes investigated by the Panel. Significantly, the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen said in its annual report that “measures taken by the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition in its targeting process to We believe that the Coalition’s measures to protect children have been insufficient and are asking you to move the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition to the list of parties that have not taken measures to protect children in your upcoming Annual Report.Īlthough your report last year noted that Saudi Arabia had set up a “Child Protection Unit” at the Coalition’s command center in Riyadh, we have seen no evidence on the ground that this has yielded any marked shifts in behavior. In 2017, however, the Coalition continued its child rights violations, including air strikes that have killed and maimed scores of children. As your report noted, the Coalition was responsible for killing and injuring at least 683 children during 2016.ĭespite the scale of violations, the Coalition was the only party to the armed conflict in Yemen listed in the newly-created Section B of Annex 1 among other “Listed parties that have put in place measures during the reporting period aimed at improving the protection of children.” An Open Letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres:Īs organizations working to protect children in situations of war, we sincerely welcome your decision in 2017 to include the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition along with other violators in the annexes of your Annual Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed (“Annual Report”) based on credible UN-verified evidence of violations against children in armed conflict.
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