Humanitarian Law and Saudi Arabia’s Military Intervention in Yemen

By 2015, the Houthi rebellion in Yemen had grown into a well-armed insurgency. The Houthi, alleged proxies of Iran, posed a fundamental threat to the fragile Yemeni government. By 2015, the conflict between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government had been ongoing since 2004, expanding outward from the Houthi base in Sa’dah in the north to Aden in the south and Ataq in the east. Yemen’s President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi had been pushed out of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and was facing an overthrow by the Houthi. Hadi sought the help of his neighbors in the region. Citing Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, President Hadi requested outside intervention to squelch the Houthi rebellion and avert the imminent overthrow of Yemen’s government. In March 2015, in response to President Hadi’s request, a Saudi-led coalition that reportedly included Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates, initiated military intervention in Yemen.

A little over a year later, the fighting continues and the ruinous impact of the Saudi intervention on the civilian population of Yemen is clear. There have been numerous allegations of violations of international law by the Saudi coalition during its intervention in Yemen, with some reports indicating that there have been over a hundred possible violations of humanitarian law by the Saudi coalition, accusations that are strongly denied by Saudi Arabia.

As of a March 2016 article, the death toll for civilians was estimated at 6,400, the number of injured was 30,000, and the number of displaced persons at over 2 million. Hundreds of those killed and thousands of those wounded were children. According to an April 2016 UN Report of the Secretary-General, 785 children were killed and 1,168 wounded in 2015, with 60% of these deaths and injuries attributed by some accounts to the Saudi coalition. The Saudi coalition was called out in the April 2016 United Nations report for causing death and injury to children, for attacks on schools and hospitals, and to a lesser extent, for the use of child soldiers. These actions led to the UN’s “blacklisting” the Saudi-led coalition, by including them in Annex I of the April 2016 Report, “List of parties that recruit or use children, kill or maim children…engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals…in situations of armed conflict on the agenda of the Security Council.” These actions are in contravention of the Geneva Conventions.

Despite these claims and the UN’s own report, less than two months later, in June 2016, the UN agreed to “review” the inclusion of the Saudi-led coalition in the April 2016 Report. This led to strong criticism of the UN for giving into pressure from Saudi Arabia and its supporters, who allegedly threatened to cut funding to UN programs. The Saudis claimed vindication, indicating that the removal of the Saudi-led coalition from the list was permanent and a recognition of the inaccuracy of the accusations. This acquiescence comes on the heels of repeated calls for independent investigations into possible violations of humanitarian law, efforts that were reportedly actively resisted by members of the Saudi coalition.

With the UN response to Saudi’s indignity at being included on a list, one that by all accounts was accurate, hope for meaningful enforcement of humanitarian law in Yemen is slight indeed. Pandering to countries that violate humanitarian law and bowing to threats of economic and political reprisal only solidifies the growing sentiment that money and politics will always come before the enforcement of international humanitarian law.