War crimes in the Yemeni civil war (2014–present)

[2] The Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States and other nations, has also been accused of violating human rights and breaking international law, especially in regards to airstrikes that repeatedly hit civilian targets.

The report criticized Saudi-led airstrikes and accused parties of unlawful violations such as "deprivation of the right to life, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, enforced disappearances and child recruitment.

Some victims of these attacks have been children, who were caught up in conflict in Aden, as a result of the forces not ensuring that civilians would not be harmed, and using weapons such as unguided rockets, which can be inaccurate, especially in residential areas.

[22] According to Amnesty international annual report 2015–2016, Houthis and allied forces loyal to former President Saleh have expanded their arbitrary arrests, detentions and abductions of government supporters, activists, and human rights defenders.

[30] WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel stated "The continued blocking by some within the Houthi leadership of the biometric registration ... is undermining an essential process that would allow us to independently verify that food is reaching ... people on the brink of famine".

In the report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Saturday, the experts said they investigated some summer camps in schools and a mosque where the Houthis disseminated their ideology and sought to recruit children fight for them against the internationally recognized government of Yemen.

[45] Human Rights Watch urged the international community, including mediating countries like Oman, to intensify efforts to secure the release of the detainees and hold the Houthis accountable for their actions.

"[57] A 2019 United Nations report said the US, UK and France may be complicit in committing war crimes in Yemen by selling weapons and providing other support to the Saudi-led coalition which is using the deliberate starvation of civilians as a tactic of warfare.

Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen, Edward Santiago, said that the "indiscriminate attacks after the dropping of leaflets urging civilians to leave Sa'ada raises concerns about the possible pattern being established in breach of International Humanitarian Law".

[65] Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has claimed that Houthi militias in alliance with the militants of exiled former president Ali Abdullah Saleh killed purposely at least 22 civilians in Taiz.

[74] On 30 June HRW released a report stating that coalition airstrikes on the northern Yemeni city of Saada, a Houthi rebel stronghold, had killed dozens of civilians and wrecked homes and markets.

MSF head of mission in Yemen said "It is unacceptable that airstrikes take place in highly concentrated civilian areas where people are gathering and going about their daily lives, especially at a time such as Ramadan.

[98] On 1 February 2016 Reuters reported: "Mortars and rockets fired at Saudi Arabian towns and villages have killed 375 civilians, including 63 children, since the start of the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen in late March, Riyadh said.

In October 2016, a densely populated funeral in Yemen was struck, leaving at least 155 dead[106] and 525 wounded,[107] including the senior military and security officials of the Shia Houthi and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

According to media reports, UAE forces in Yemen had carried out a detention campaign against religious scholars and preachers who opposed their presence in the country where prisoners were subject to physical and psychological torture.

[148] In a press release, the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean warned that detainees in the UAE-controlled "Bir Ahmed" prison were subjected to "the most severe methods of intimidation and psychological and physical torture" which reflected the security situation in Aden.

[152] In December 2021 interview, Huda Al-Sarari, a vocal critic of domestic abuse against women and gender-based violence shared the grave consequences she faced for exposing UAE-run secret prisons in Yemen.

It led Al-Sarari to form a group along with other activists and fellow attorneys to quietly investigate the reports about torture of civilians inside makeshift prison facilities built at airports, military bases, homes, or even nightclubs.

Besides the location of the prison sites, the reports also brought out the testimonies of surviving detainees who condemned the systematic violence and torture committed by Yemeni special forces backed by the UAE.

As of December 2021, Al-Sarari had been hiding in a country she refused to name due to safety concerns and claimed to continue taking field calls from people in Yemen, mostly mothers, and investigating abuses.

[177][180][184] UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and RSF reminded all the parties to the armed conflict in Yemen that they were required to respect and ensure the safety of all journalists by UN Security Council Resolution 2222, adopted in 2015, and by the Geneva Conventions.

[187][188] The director of Yemen TV, Munir al-Hakami, and his wife, Suaad Hujaira, who also worked for the state-owned, Houthi-controlled broadcaster, were killed along with their three children by a coalition air strike on 9 February 2016.

"[234] On 3 May 2017, Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland wrote that "the world is letting some 7 million men, women and children slowly but surely, be engulfed by unprecedented famine.

[239] Grant Pritchard, Save the Children's interim country director for Yemen, stated in April 2017:With the right medicines, these [diseases] are all completely treatable – but the Saudi Arabia-led coalition is stopping them from getting in.

"[242] The Saudi embassy in London, in early February 2016, advised United Nations and other aid organizations to move their offices and staff away from "regions where the Houthi militias and their supporters are active and in areas where there are military operations".

[248] Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, saying "that civilians, including children, continue to bear the brunt of increased fighting and military operations in Yemen", and calling for a swift investigation.

[281] On 19 September 2020, UN report warned that the UK and other countries of possibly providing arms to Saudi Arabia in terms of "aiding and assisting" the war crimes committed by the coalition in Yemen.

[282] According to a report by The Guardian, released on 1 December 2021, Saudi Arabia initiated a lobbying campaign using "incentives and threats" to shut down a UN investigation of human right violations committed by all sides in the Yemen war.

But according to Abdulrasheed Al-Faqih, co-founder and executive director of Mwatana for Human Rights, the Biden administration's plan to replace an independent UN body investigating war crimes was deeply flawed.