Independent Southern Group Meets UN Supreme Commission for Human Rights in Geneva
On Thursday September 13th, 2018, members of the independent southern group met Mr. Kiyoko Hasegawa, responsible for Yemeni file at the Middle East and North Africa office of UN Supreme Commission of Human Rights in Geneva. The meeting was very positive and discussed several human rights issues in Yemen, especially I the south.
The meeting discussed the experts’ commission report about violations in Yemen, issued on August 28th, 2018. Members of the independent southern group expressed their criticism of the report as it ignored completely violations committed by Al-Houthi-Saleh militias in other southern governorates as such a thing increases concerns of victims about reliability of the report and possibility to achieve justice through criminal liability of violators via international mechanisms, especially the report ignoring observatory reports filed to the commission. Mr. Kiyoko Hasegawa expressed his understanding for these remarks and advised to file it in writing to be discussed with the report in front of the UN Council for Human Rights.
The group also presented the southern attitude towards political solution of the current conflict in Yemen and asserted that southern people should participate in peace making. They indicated that exclusion of the southern transitional council from Geneva talks, led by UN special envoy to Yemen, led the southern people to escalate peacefully through protests all over the south in addition to recent military escalations around Al-Hodeida. They asserted that any talks that exclude the southern cause as a basic key to solution will fail.
Member of the independent southern group explained to the commission the deteriorated services conditions in southern cities as the simplest needs of life like salaries, electricity and water are lacking while the government is sinking in corruption as it failed to assume its responsibilities towards citizens of the south and sought to punish them.
They demanded that the commission should activate its role in the south through training NGOs and qualifying security troops through special programs for protecting human rights.
At the end of meeting, members of the independent southern group invited Mr. Kiyoko Hasegawa to the seminar to be held in Geneva on Monday September 17th, 2018.
