UN rights body votes to end probe into Yemen war crimes
SMA NEWS – NEW YORK
Member states of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council voted to shut down the body’s own mandate to investigate war crimes in Yemen’s civil war.
Russia, Bahrain and 19 other countries voted against renewing the council’s mandate, shooting down a draft presented by European nations and Canada and led by the Netherlands.
Eighteen other nations, including the US, France, Germany, South Korea and Mexico voted in favor of the draft, while seven members of the council abstained. Ukraine did not register for the vote.
The failure marks the first time the UN’s human rights body has rejected a draft resolution in its 15-year history.
Saudi Arabia, which is not a party to the council and was thus unable to vote, has been accused of trying to shut down the experts’ investigation mandate in the past.
Yemen’s civil war has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, according to the UN.
The country is now largely in the hands of the Houthis, but fighting continues despite a ceasefire proposal put forth by Riyadh earlier this year.
Bahrain’s ambassador to the UN, Yusuf Abdulkarim, said during today’s debate that the body’s investigations had “contributed to misinformation” about the situation on the ground in Yemen.
