Human rights experts say everyone in the Yemen conflict is likely committing war crimes
A United Nations report complied by British, Australian, and Tunisian human rights experts states that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are responsible for human rights violations" in Yemen.
In 2015, after Houthi rebels pushed the Yemeni government from power, Saudi Arabia, supported by several Persian Gulf and Western countries, announced it would lead a coalition to fight the Iranian-backed rebels. Since then, thousands of people have been killed, more are suffering from starvation, and there is a shortage of medication and clean water. Yemen was already the poorest country in the region, and at least 22 million people have been affected by the civil war.
The report, released Tuesday, said the violations include rape, torture, the use of child soldiers, arbitrary detention, and "deprivation of the right of life," and accuses the Houthis of having committed many of the same abuses. Saudi airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals, and buses, raising "serious questions about the targeting process applied by the coalition," the report said. "Despite the severity of the situation, we continue to witness a total disregard of the suffering of the people of Yemen," British human rights lawyer Charles Garraway told The Associated Press. "This crisis has reached its peak, with no apparent sight of light at the end of the tunnel. It is indeed a forgotten crisis."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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