CRC/C/SAU/CO/3-4
Children in armed conflict
38.
The Committee is deeply concerned at credible, corroborated and consistent
information that the State party, through its military operation in Yemen, has been
committing grave violations of children’s rights. In particular, the Committee expresses its
deep concern at information that:
(a)
Hundreds of children have been killed and maimed as a result of
indiscriminate air strikes and shelling by the State party-led coalition on civilian areas and
camps for internally displaced persons, of unexploded cluster bomb submunitions and other
unexploded ordnance, and of the dozens of attacks carried out on schools and hospitals;
(b)
Prohibited tactics such as inducing starvation as a method of warfare have
been used by the State party-led coalition against civilians, including children, as reported
by the Panel of Experts on Yemen established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2140
(2014) (see S/2016/73);
(c)
More than 3 million children in Yemen face life-threatening levels of
malnutrition and thousands are currently at risk of dying from diseases owing to the dire
humanitarian crisis, the destruction of civilian infrastructure critical to the maintenance of
basic services and the imposition from both sides of obstacles to the delivery of
humanitarian assistance;
(d)
In 2015, more than half of the attacks perpetrated on schools were attributed
to the State party-led coalition (see A/70/836-S/2016/360, para. 171); these attacks
continued in 2016, leaving millions of children in need of emergency access to education.
39.
The Committee urges the State party to abide by its obligation under article 38
of the Convention to respect and to ensure respect for the rules of international
humanitarian law that are relevant to children in armed conflict and joins the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in calling upon the State party to
respect and ensure respect for the prohibition on attacks against civilians and civilian
objects, as well as for the core principles of precaution, distinction and proportionality,
and to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for
civilians in need (see A/HRC/33/38, paras. 71 (b) and (d)). The Committee also urges
the State party to respond positively to the High Commissioner’s call for the
establishment of an international, independent investigative body to carry out
comprehensive investigations of allegations of violations of international humanitarian
and international human rights law in Yemen (see A/HRC/33/38, para. 74 (a)).
Economic exploitation, including child labour
40.
Noting the concerns expressed by the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women in 2008 about the economic and sexual exploitation
and ill-treatment of migrant girls employed as domestic workers (see
CEDAW/C/SAU/CO/2, para. 23), the Committee urges the State party to ensure the
effective implementation of the law prohibiting the recruitment of children as
domestic workers. The Committee also urges the State party to take measures to
ensure that those who exploit children as domestic workers are held accountable.
Children in street situations
41.
Given that thousands of children, many of them victims of trafficking, continue
to live and work on the streets in the State party and to be subjected to forced labour
by criminal gangs, the Committee urges the State party to immediately stop the
arbitrary arrest and deportation of such children and to release all children currently
detained. The Committee also recommends that the State party assess the number of
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