Local Editor
Dozens of Yemeni civil society organizations called on the United Nations to guarantee access for relief groups to deliver aid to impoverished parts of the country as the humanitarian crisis in Yemen continues to worsen.
In an address to the UN Human Rights Council and its envoy in Yemen, the coalition of groups spoke of the "increased challenges" it faces due to the "shrinking space and restrictions imposed on their work".
"Many organizations are prevented from doing their work," said the letter, seen by Middle East Eye.
"Humanitarian aid is not allowed into besieged areas such as Taiz, a city besieged for the last two years. Human Rights defenders and social activists constantly risk being killed or their freedom restricted."
Among the signatories to the letter are various locally based Yemeni women's rights and youth groups.
The coalition issued nine demands to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN envoy to Yemen, the Representative to Yemen of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Humanitarian Coordinator to Yemen.
The demands included establishing an international investigations commission to investigate human rights abuses in order to ensure the protection of local monitors.
It also called for maintaining this commission as a human rights body and "not use the international commission to achieve political victory exploiting the Yemeni blood".
Earlier this week, a UN official condemned a Saudi-led coalition air strike that killed at least 14 civilians, including four children, and said that the air raid displayed a "disregard for 'civilian' safety by all combatants of the Yemeni civil war".
A Saudi coalition spokesman later said that the air strike on Sana’a was a "technical mistake".
“All parties to the conflict continue to show a disregard for the protection of civilians and the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants in the conduct of hostilities,” said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick.
More than two years have passed as the Yemeni civil war rages on and while the Saudi-led coalition continues to prop up the resigned Yemeni regime in its fight against Houthi revolutionaries in the south of Yemen.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
