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STORY: GENEVA / YEMEN TRUCE
TRT: 02:50
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 JUNE 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
03 JUNE 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“We have frequently briefed about the devastating impact that Yemen’s armed conflict, which began in 2015, has had on civilians. But for the past two months, a truce has meant the people of Yemen have seen violence and hostilities decrease.”
4. Med shot, podium
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“It is therefore all the more welcome from our human rights perspective that parties to the conflict – the internationally recognised government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Ansar Allah movement – have now agreed to extend the truce for a further two months. Between 2 April and 1 June, the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen, as part of its ongoing work monitoring and documenting civilian casualties, gathered preliminary information indicating that at least 19 civilians were killed and 32 injured in some 20 incidents of conflict-related violence. The majority of these casualties were caused by landmines, including improvised mines, and explosive remnants of war.”
6. Wide shot, briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Children are especially at risk. From 2 April to 1 June, three children were reported to have been killed and another 12 injured in this manner.”
8. Med shot, podium
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“We urge all parties to the conflict to cooperate with, and provide full and safe access to, humanitarian demining teams. We also call on all regional and international actors involved in the Yemeni conflict to ensure that effective demining operations and mine awareness activities, particularly in schools, are adequately funded.”
10. Wide shot, briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Despite the truce, our Office recorded four incidents of shooting by snipers that resulted in the killing of three civilians, including one woman, and serious injury to two civilians, including a boy, in areas under the control of the Government close to the frontlines in Al Dalee and Ta’izz governorates.”
12. Med shot, podium
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“We urge the parties to make serious efforts to ensure that roads into the city of Ta’izz are reopened. Ta’izz has essentially been under siege by Ansar Allah since 2015. There is a current dire humanitarian situation there. People face huge challenges in getting water, buying food and accessing medical services. Many in Ta’izz, as in other areas of Yemen, have experienced great trauma during the conflict from high levels of armed violence, and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including attacks targeting civilians.”
14. Wide shot, briefing room
Human Rights Office spokesperson Liz Throssell today (3 Jun) said, “for the past two months, a truce has meant the people of Yemen have seen violence and hostilities decrease,” and welcomed that parties to the conflict have now agreed to extend the truce for a further two months.”
At the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva, Throssell said, “between 2 April and 1 June, the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen, as part of its ongoing work monitoring and documenting civilian casualties, gathered preliminary information indicating that at least 19 civilians were killed and 32 injured in some 20 incidents of conflict-related violence. The majority of these casualties were caused by landmines, including improvised mines, and explosive remnants of war.”
This underscores the threat that these devices pose to civilians, often over long periods of time, causing death or serious injury.
Throssell said, “children are especially at risk. From 2 April to 1 June, three children were reported to have been killed and another 12 injured in this manner,” she said.
Given the widespread use of landmines, despite their indiscriminate effects, and the presence of unexploded ordnance, particularly in Hudaydah, this trend is unfortunately expected to continue as people venture into contaminated areas.
“We urge all parties to the conflict to cooperate with, and provide full and safe access to, humanitarian demining teams. We also call on all regional and international actors involved in the Yemeni conflict to ensure that effective demining operations and mine awareness activities, particularly in schools, are adequately funded,” Throssell added.
“Despite the truce, our Office recorded four incidents of shooting by snipers that resulted in the killing of three civilians, including one woman, and serious injury to two civilians, including a boy, in areas under the control of the Government close to the frontlines in Al Dalee and Ta’izz governorates,” she stated.
Two incidents were also documented by the UN human rights office, in which weapons fired from drones injured four civilians, including a girl –- again in areas controlled by the Government close to the frontlines.
Throssell urged the parties “to make serious efforts to ensure that roads into the city of Ta’izz are reopened. Ta’izz has essentially been under siege by Ansar Allah since 2015.”
She said, “there is a current dire humanitarian situation there. People face huge challenges in getting water, buying food and accessing medical services. Many in Ta’izz, as in other areas of Yemen, have experienced great trauma during the conflict from high levels of armed violence, and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including attacks targeting civilians.”
There are reports that parties to the conflict may be regrouping in case military operations resume. We call on them to adhere to the terms of the truce in good faith and to refrain entirely from recruitment campaigns aimed at bringing children into their ranks – an unlawful practice that contravenes the commitments made by all parties.
