57 rights organizations urge UN inquiry into abuses in Yemen

In a letter to members of the Human Rights Council, 57 Yemeni and international rights groups urged the establishment of an independent body to probe violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian laws in Yemen.
 
“Serious violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of international human rights law by parties to the conflict have continued to be committed with impunity,” Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the 57 signatories, said in a statement on Tuesday.
 
‘War crimes potentially committed’
 
The New-York based rights group stressed that the Saudi-led coalition had carried out dozens of “unlawful airstrikes, some of which may amount to war crimes, that have killed thousands of civilians and hit schools, hospitals, markets and homes.”
 
“The victims of abuses in Yemen cannot afford to wait longer for credible investigations into ongoing grave violations and abuses to be undertaken,” the letter by the rights organizations said.
 
Since March 2015, Yemen has been under military strikes by a Saudi Arabian-led coalition.
 
More than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of the war, and much of the country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and factories, has been ravaged.
 
The Saudi war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen and has dragged the impoverished country to the brink of widespread famine.