Iran said on Wednesday the UN is giving a “free pass” to the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen by removing it from a list of groups violating children’s rights. As Iran flays the UN, the global body has given the green light for the Arab Coalition to be removed from a blacklist of entities that infringe upon the rights of children.
A recent report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the coalition will be delisted “for the violation of killing and maiming, following a sustained significant decrease … due to air strikes.”
It said the toll had fallen since an agreement signed in March 2019.
Iran flays UN over decision in wake of ‘100s’ of Yemeni children killed
“UN secretariat gives a free pass to Saudi-led coalition in #Yemen, despite admitting 100s of Yemeni children were killed,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Twitter. Even as Iran flays the UN, the top global body has started preparations for the removal of the controversial Arab Coalition from its blacklist.
Saudi Arabia and its ally the United States are making a mockery of international bodies, Mousavi added, using the hashtag “ListOfShame” and attaching pictures of dead Yemeni children.
https://twitter.com/SAMOUSAVI9/status/1273132587528192003
The coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
It has been widely blamed for civilian casualties in bombing raids that human rights campaigners say have pushed the country deeper into crisis.
The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict has said that the coalition was responsible for the death or injury of 222 children in Yemen last year.
Read more: Yemen crisis: UN relief agencies need $2.4 bn
But the secretary general’s envoy for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, said the UN had come “under no pressure” from Saudi Arabia and that the removal from the list was based on data.
In 2016 the coalition was briefly included on the annual list before a threat by Saudi Arabia to cut off funding to UN programmes forced a reversal.
The following year, after Guterres assumed the UN leadership, the coalition was placed in a sub-section of the report created for those making efforts to avoid deaths of children. It remained there in 2018 and 2019.
Rights groups express anger at UN decision
Human Rights Watch denounced Guterres for dropping the coalition from the “list of shame,” saying he was “ignoring the UN’s own evidence of continued grave violations against children.”
The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict said that “by absolving the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition of any responsibility for killing and maiming children in Yemen, the UN Secretary-General has left children vulnerable to further attacks.”
Read more: Saudi-led coalition removed from UN blacklist
It said the coalition was responsible for the death or injury of 222 children in Yemen last year.
Human rights groups slam UN for removing Saudi-led coalition in #Yemen from blacklist of parties responsible for the deaths and injuries of childrenhttps://t.co/TXnsqOe7et
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) June 16, 2020
Inger Ashing of Save the Children called it a “shocking decision” by Guterres.
But the secretary general’s envoy for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, said the UN had come “under no pressure” from Saudi Arabia and that the removal from the list was based on data.
What is the Arab coalition?
The coalition intervened in 2015 in Yemen, one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. It has been widely blamed for civilian casualties in bombing raids that campaigners say have pushed the country deeper into crisis.
The conflict has its roots in the failure of a political transition supposed to bring stability to Yemen following an Arab Spring uprising that forced its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2011.
As president, Mr Hadi struggled to deal with a variety of problems, including attacks by jihadists, a separatist movement in the south, the continuing loyalty of security personnel to Saleh, as well as corruption, unemployment and food insecurity.
Read more: How the Saudi-led coalition forces devastated Yemen? 5 years of misery
The Houthi movement (known formally as Ansar Allah), which fought a series of rebellions against Saleh during the previous decade, took advantage of the new president’s weakness by taking control of their northern heartland of Saada province and neighbouring areas.
Disillusioned with the transition, many ordinary Yemenis – including Sunnis – supported the Houthis, and in late 2014 and early 2015 the rebels gradually took over the capital Sanaa.
Alarmed by the rise of a group they believed to be backed militarily by regional power Iran, Saudi Arabia and eight other Arab states began an air campaign aimed at defeating the Houthis, ending Iranian influence in Yemen and restoring Mr Hadi’s government.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk
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