JEDDAH: The Arab Parliament lauded the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) for its role in rehabilitating children recruited by the Houthi militia in Yemen.
The Parliament, created by the Arab League, also expressed support for the actions of the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
The Parliament stressed that the use of international humanitarian aid by the Houthi militias to trade to poor families in exchange for the recruitment or deprivation of their children (fighting for food) represents a clear and explicit breach of international humanitarian law and a flagrant challenge to the international community and the UN resolutions.
The Parliament urged the international community to assume its responsibilities and take urgent and practical measures to prevent the use of children as fighters in Yemen, and to rehabilitate those who are recruited.
It urged the UN secretary-general to continue supporting the efforts of the Yemeni National Committee to investigate the recruitment of children, and to call on the UN Security Council to refer Houthi crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and prosecute the leaders of the Houthi militia and their Iranian-regime supporters.
The Parliament decided to address the president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the regional parliaments to condemn the crimes of the Houthi militia against Yemeni children, forcing them onto the battlefields.
The Parliament also urged the UN to use all measures to stop the Houthis from using government institutions, schools and hospitals to store weapons, and from looting humanitarian aid meant for the Yemeni people. It stressed the need for international supervision of such aid.
Recently, Yemeni Minister of Human Rights Mohammed Askar confirmed that the Houthi militia committed violations of international law against children such as killing, torture, recruitment, deprivation of health care and denial of humanitarian aid.
He said that the Houthi militia has killed more than 1,372 children since the coup, including 204 children killed by mines planted by the terrorist militia, and arrested 489 children at checkpoints, most of them in Dhamar, Sanaa, Ibb, Hodeidah and Amran, to recruit and send them to combat.
In addition, the Houthi militia used 1,962 schools as military centers and weapons stores, especially in Taiz and Aden before it was liberated, which deprived children of the right to education. They also recruited children from shelters in Taiz.
This came at a seminar organized by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights today in Geneva with the participation of KSRelief and a number of international organizations.
