The UN High Commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official profile], on Thursday called on the international community [press release] to establish an independent international body for conducting comprehensive investigations of human rights violations in Yemen. This call comes in the wake of a report released earlier today which highlighted various allegations of serious human rights violations and abuses committed by all sides in the Yemen conflict. The report further highlighted the impact of the war on civilian lives and health, and the country’s infrastructure. Among other things, the report lists various examples of attacks in residential areas, marketplaces, medical and educational facilities, sniper attacks against civilians, recruitment and use of children in hostilities. The report also noted the inability of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] to identify the existence of any potential military objective in many of the documented military attacks. In reaching out for support for establishing the new body, Al Hussein stated: “[Civilians in Yemen] continue to suffer, absent any form of accountability and justice, while those responsible for the violations and abuses against them enjoy impunity …. The international community… has a legal and moral duty to take urgent steps to alleviate the appalling levels of human despair.”

The rapidly deteriorating situation in Yemen has sparked significant international concern. According to the report identified above, there have been 3,799 civilian deaths and 6,711 injuries to date since March 2015 in Yemen. The civilian death estimate was at only 2,800 in January [JURIST report], which would mean that approximately 1,000 more have died in as little as eight months. The report further indicates that an approximate 7.6 million people, including three million women and children, are currently suffering from malnutrition and at least three million people have been displaced from their homes. The OHCHR condemned [JURIST report] a string of rocket and mortar attacks against residential areas and markets in Taizz, Yemen, from June 3 to June 8. In March UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned [JURIST report] that the use of cluster bombs by the Saudi-led coalition against neighborhoods in Yemen may amount to a war crime. In January the UN World Food Programme [official website] appealed to all the parties involved in the Yemen conflict to allow the safe passage of food [JURIST report] to the city of Taiz. In October Amnesty International [advocacy website] called for [JURIST report] an independent investigation into possible war crimes surrounding the destruction of a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Yemen.