[JURIST] Human rights organizations on Friday criticized the UN Human Rights Council [official website] for passing a resolution [text] on Yemen that does not call for an independent international war crimes investigation. The Netherlands, backed by other Western countries, had proposed the UN inquiry resolution, but the Council instead adopted a resolution mainly drafted by Saudi Arabia, which only asks that the UN provide technical assistance to a Yemeni inquiry led by exiled President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi [Al Jazeera profile]. James Lynch, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] Deputy Middle East and North Africa director, stated [AI report] that the resolution was a massive failure and that the Yemeni government has failed to effectively mount such investigations in the past. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] also criticized [HRW report] the resolution, stating that Yemeni authorities had neither investigated nor prosecuted serious international crimes committed since 2011.

The violent situation in Yemen continues to be a significant international issue. Last month the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein communicated to the UN Human Rights Council that his office has discovered that there have been nearly 2,000 casualties [JURIST report] and more than 4,000 injured in Yemen. The Special Advisers added that “recent developments are likely to lead to escalation of the violence in central Yemen.” Also in September the president of Yemen backed out of talks [JURIST report] arranged by the UN with Shiite rebels. In August the fighting in Yemen between Huthi militias and anti-Huthi armed groups indiscriminately killed and wounded civilians with unlawful airstrikes in civilian neighborhoods, according to a report [JURIST report] issued by AI. In June the UN arranged for a Yemen peace talk [JURIST report] in Geneva, to which the Yemeni president sent a delegation.