Larijani Urges ’Serious’ UN Action to Stop Saudi Aggression on Yemen

 

Local Editor

The Chief of the Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, called on the United Nations [UN] on Sunday to take measures to bring an immediate halt to the ongoing Saudi aggression on the people of Yemen.

In separate letters to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Larijani referred to the grave humanitarian situation in Yemen and called for serious action of the UN to put an end to the Saudi crime of aggression on Yemen.

 

He regretted that the UN Security Council and countries that claim to support human rights have failed to take serious action against the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen.

 


He noted that more than 3,000 people, including 700 women and children, have been killed and over 10,000 more have been injured in Yemen as a result of Saudi attacks on the country.

 

 

 


Furthermore, Larijani highlighted accountability of perpetrators of aggression and the use of force before The Hague-based International Criminal Court [ICC].

In the letters, he urged Ban and al-Hussein to discharge their duty as per Rome Statute 1998 criminalizing use of force and aggression on sovereign nations.

 

 


He stressed that the Saudi-led coalition’s use of banned weapons, such as phosphorus bombs and cluster bombs, their extensive destruction of Yemen’s infrastructures, and their move to prevent the dispatch of aid to the war-torn country constitute war crimes according to international human rights regulations and The Geneva Conventions.

 

 

 

As Article 23 of the Geneva Convension IV, the International Humanitarian Law obliged the governments to allow free shipment of medical and food supplies to the people trapped in conflict, Larijani said.

He added that the IHL 1949 envisaged respect for the people’s right to have food and drinking water in the course of armed conflicts.

Many Yemeni citizens are incapable of meeting their main food requirements, he said, adding that practices of the Saudi-led coalition formed against Yemen are flagrant instances of violation of Article 54 of the first additional protocol to the four Geneva Conventions and are considered war crimes and crime against humanity based on the IHL 1949.

Larijani further said that refusal to allow shipment of humanitarian supplies will be collective punishment of the Yemeni people.

Additionally, he said that any intervention on part of any government or coalition is manifest breach of the Rome Statute 1998.

"I should recall that use of force in any form is forbidden under the international law", said the senior Iranian human rights official.