In reaction to today’s UN Human Rights Council decision not to set up an independent inquiry to investigate human rights violations by all sides to the conflict in Yemen, Sajjad Mohammed Sajid, Oxfam Country Director in Yemen, said:
“It is unacceptable that, after 18 months of conflict in Yemen, the Human Rights Council is still failing to protect Yemeni civilians and is instead turning a blind eye to the human rights violations perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.
“With more than 3,700 civilians killed and 6,700 injured by airstrikes and indiscriminate shelling, a national inquiry is clearly insufficient. All parties need to be held accountable for the human rights violations against civilians.
“The job of the Human Rights Council is to send a strong message that civilians’ lives matter and that those responsible for the killing of civilians will not go unpunished – for the second time in this conflict it has failed.”
Notes: Despite working across the frontlines, Oxfam has been able to reach more than 900,000 people with humanitarian assistance since the beginning of the conflict.
