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DEFENDERS
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the principles of the Declaration. Furthermore,
Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights pointing out the right to life and the
necessity for the law to protect this right, prohibits
any form of arbitrary deprivation of the right of the
people. The protection of the rights of children,
women and the vulnerable and the elderly, right
to development, the right to a dignified living, the
right to food, the right to housing, healthy drinking
water, and any others are all the fundamental
rights of Mankind, which have been deprived from
Yemeni citizens through the military aggression of
the coalition countries.
Saudi Arabia's use of cluster bombs in the
bombing of Yemeni towns is another blatant
human rights violation, particularly recently where
with the report of HRW, in this regard which is in
a way documented, alongside photos and evidence,
the case gets highlighted. It must be said that the
prohibition of the use of cluster weapons has been
stated in a Convention of the same name, and from
2010 it is enforceable.
d) Humanitarian LawAspect
The heavy military attacks and bombardments
of residential and civilian areas left many Yemeni
civilians, particularly women, children and the
elderly dead or injured. Also the destruction of
the urban infrastructures such as water, electricity
and hospitals in Yemen, has been the target of
the coalition forces to bring the people of Yemen
to their knees. These damages and conflicts are
in contradiction with the League of Nations 16
September 1924 declaration in protection of
children which was adopted under the name
of the "Geneva Declaration", the UN General
Assembly 14 December 1974 declaration
regarding the protection of women and children
during crises and armed conflict, and article 77
of the first additional protocol to the Geneva
Conventions (1977) regarding special respect
to children against any form of "disrespectful"
attack, alongsie the contents of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child. Also Resolution
2444 (23) of 19 December 1968, 2597 (24) of
16 December 1969, 2674 (25) and 2675 (25)
of 9 December 1970 regarding the protection
of human rights and the fundamental principles
regarding the protection of civilians in armed
conflict also refer to this approach.
The second protocol additional to the Geneva
Conventions pays attention to the observation of
humanitarian rights in non-international armed
conflict, and it states that not only in international
armed conflicts but also in civil wars the minimum
humanitarian observations must be noted.
The illegitimate intervention of the coalition
countries in attacking Yemen even if it is to
defend the resigned president as legitimate, and it
changes an international armed conflict to a non-
international armed conflict, still the violation of
the humanitarian rights of soldiers and civilians is
unjustifiable.
In other words the coalition countries are
without a doubt in violation of humanitarian law,
particularly the Geneva Four Conventions and
their additional protocols of 1977 and 2005, by not
observing the rules of war that include distinction
between combatants and civilians (such as attacking
hospitals, treatment centres, and sports grounds),
the principle of prevention of unnecessary pain and
suffering (violence and the use of banned weapons),
and many other cases.
It can clearly be observed that there are no
justifiable reasons for legitimization of the military
aggression against the people of Yemen from legal
aspects, and the continuation of this trend takes
place due to the turning of blind eye of countries
who claim to detend human rights, and the
meaningful silence of western and Arab media in
transparency of the grave violation of the human
rights of the Yemeni people takes place.