HRC51 – End of Session Joint Statement On Yemen. (Please note that the statement was not read during the meeting due to lack of time)
October 7, 2022
Mr. President,
I deliver this statement on behalf of Canada and a cross-regional group of countries.
The cruelty, atrocities, and devastation suffered by the people of Yemen are beyond comprehension. For eight years, the people of Yemen have suffered ongoing air strikes, shelling of schools, hospitals, and residential areas, explosions from unexploded ordnance, and killings by sniper fire. Children continue to be indoctrinated and recruited into armed groups, and local civil society organizations, particularly women's rights groups, continue to face harassment and forced closure.
For four years now, Yemen's crisis has been one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than two-thirds of the population, including children, lacking food, access to safe drinking water, and essential life-saving medicines.
Mr. President,
The international community lacks independent and impartial monitoring and reporting on the situation in Yemen. We fear that grave violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights continue to be committed by all parties to the conflict.
While we support ongoing technical assistance and capacity building for the Yemeni National Commission of Inquiry, we find it regrettable that the Core Group ignored many cross-regional proposals to improve the independent and impartial monitoring and reporting functions under this Item 10 resolution.
Independent and impartial monitoring and reporting are critical for accountability, justice, and sustainable and inclusive peace.
We are also deeply concerned about the expiration of the UN-mediated truce in Yemen. We strongly urge all parties to the conflict to engage in good-faith negotiations on the proposal submitted by the UN Special Envoy and prevent a return to war. Extending the truce is the first step to placing Yemen on the path to peace.
Thank you.