‘Take over probe into Yemen abuses’

GENEVA: The UN must take over responsibility for investigating rights violations in Yemen’s civil war as the country’s government is not up to the job, the global body’s human rights office said.

In a report published yesterday, the office challenged the UN Human Rights Council, which meets this month, to agree to look into atrocities committed during what it called an “entirely man-made catastrophe”.

The 47-country council has shied away from that task for two years, leaving the job to Yemen’s National Commission, which reports to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Hadi is backed by a Saudi-led coalition that is one of the combatants.

“I… join you in asking why the members of the Human Rights Council are not taking their responsibility and membership to this body seriously,” the office’s head of Middle East and North Africa, Mohammad Ali Alnsour, said.

Yemen is mired in a war that has killed at least 10 000 people over the past two-and-a-half years, according to UN figures. Widespread hunger and internal displacement and an unprecedented cholera epidemic have led aid agencies to describe it as one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

Alnsour said it was the third time the council was being asked to set up an investigation. “That would really put pressure on the conflicting parties to adhere to the rules and obligations under humanitarian law.”

The UN report said Yemen’s National Commission was detrimentally affected by “political constraints”.