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Egypt Independent
Bahrain, Russia and other members of the UN Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday, to stop war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states who sought to keep the mission going.
Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the independent investigators further two years to monitor atrocities in Yemen’s conflict. It marked the first time in the council’s 15-year history that a resolution was defeated.
In the vote called by Saudi ally Bahrain, 21 countries voted against the Dutch resolution including China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela and Uzbekistan. Eighteen including Britain, France and Germany voted to support it.
There were seven abstentions and Ukraine’s delegation was absent. The United States only has observer status.
“Potential war crimes have been committed by all sides in the seven-year conflict, which has pitted a Saudi-led coalition against Iran-allied Houthi rebels”, the independent investigators have said in previous remarks.
More than 100,000 people have been killed and 4 million have been displaced, activist groups say.
“I cannot help but feel that this Council has failed the people of Yemen”, Dutch ambassador, Peter Bekker, told delegates.
“With this vote, the Council has effectively ended its reporting mandate, it has cut this lifeline of the Yemeni people to the international community”, he added.
Rights activists said this week; “Saudi Arabia lobbied heavily against the Western resolution”. The kingdom is not a voting member of the UN Human Rights Council, and its delegation did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
In the debate, Bahraini ambassador, Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri, said; “the international group of investigators had contributed to spreading misinformation about the situation on the ground in Yemen”.
“By voting against the renewal of the GEE today, UN member states have given a green light to warring parties to continue their campaign of death and destruction in Yemen”, said, Radhya Almutawakel, chairperson of the independent Yemeni activist group ‘Mwatana for Human Rights’.
John Fisher of Human Rights Watch said; “the failure to renew the mandate was “a stain on the record of the Human Rights Council”.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres still believes there is a need for accountability in Yemen, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
