Bahrain presents joint statement

Geneva, Sept. 26(BNA): The Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United Nations Office and other organizations in Geneva, Dr. Yousef Abdulkarim Bucheeri, delivered a speech on behalf of the Group of States representing the Arab Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen under item 10 of the agenda of the 39th Session of the Human Rights Council in the interactive dialogue on the report of the High Commissioner on Yemen. He expressed the Group's desire to provide comments and observations on the report, especially those related to the outputs of the international expert group in considering human rights violations In Yemen. In this regard, the Permanent Representative noted that the conclusions and recommendations made by the Group of Experts were in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2201. The report which described the Houthi militias as "de facto authorities" and the head of the militia as the "Leader of the Revolution" give a wrong message that the Houthis can understand as a recognition of their coup. In a related context, the statement referred to the lack of respect by the experts for their mandate provided for them in the Human Rights Council resolution 36/31, which they had exceeded through the investigations contained in their report, in contravention of the provisions of paragraph 12 of that resolution. Although the report holds the Houthi militias responsible for violations of the international humanitarian law in the areas under their control, and for targeting Yemeni and Saudi cities with ballistic missiles, these violations were not clearly stated in the list of the Houthi militias’ violations in the report. The Permanent Representative, on behalf of the Group, stressed that the report also ignored other violations committed by the Houthi militias, including the laying of sea and landmines. The report says that the task of the experts is to primarily consider all violations committed by all parties to the conflict in accordance with their mandate during the period from September 2014 to June 2018. However, as indicated in their report, the experts focused only on selected cases attributed to the coalition and the legitimate government and closed their eyes to the violations committed by the Houthi militias since their coup on 21 September 2014. The Permanent Representative also rated the report as unbalanced and biased and encouraging to the Houthi militias to continue their violent approach against the Yemeni civilians and undermine the political process such as by refraining from participation in Geneva peace talks three weeks ago. The Permanent Representative, on behalf of the Group, stressed the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibilities by strengthening the United Nations mechanism towards Yemen and working with the legitimate Government in an objective and constructive manner. This is in order to enable it to regain its control over the entire territory of Yemen in accordance with Security Council resolution 2216 and provide the necessary assistance and support to strengthen Yemeni institutions and restore the rule of law with a view to achieving accountability and preventing impunity.