Sana'a: The National Human Rights Commission on Monday strongly condemned the brutal crimes committed against unarmed civilians in Sabr al-Mawadim district of Taiz governorate by mercenaries of the Saudi-led aggression.
According to Yemen News Agency, the Commission considered these crimes a blatant and deliberate violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The statement explained that mercenary elements shelled villages in the al-Farawish area of the district with artillery shells, a crime that falls under the category of collective punishment, which is prohibited internationally. A mortar shell fired at Tubasheah area resulted in the death of a girl and the injury of another child, in an extrajudicial killing.
The statement added that mercenary shelling targeted students at Musab Bin Omair School as they were returning home, killing a fifth-grade student and injuring an eighth-grade student. The National Human Rights Commission affirmed that these acts constitute war crimes under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which prohibits targeting civilians and protected civilian objects such as schools. It also represents a grave violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two optional protocols, and a crime against humanity due to its systematic and widespread nature against the civilian population.
The Commission stressed that targeting schools and students directly violates the right to education and the right to life, both of which are inalienable and non-derogable rights. It called upon the international community, the Security Council, and the United Nations to uphold their legal and moral responsibilities, publicly condemn these crimes, and launch an independent international investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable and ensure they do not escape punishment.
The Commission also urged international human rights and children's rights organizations to intervene urgently and document these crimes. The National Human Rights Commission affirmed that the world's silence regarding the targeting of children in their schools constitutes complicity in the crime, and that this bloodshed will not go unpunished, and its perpetrators will be prosecuted before all national and international judicial bodies.