The Bahrain Forum for HumanRights (BFHR) paper during a parallel session in the Human Rights Council: theSaudi Authorities are Committing the Century’s Massacre against the YemeniChildren BFHR’s Paper during a parallel session inthe Human Rights Council Organized by the International Council Supporting Fair Trial AndHuman Rights in Geneva and Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture: The Saudi Authorities are Committing theCentury’s Massacre against the Yemeni Children June 17, 2016 Baqir Darwish The head of Media in the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) In October, theKingdom succeeded in hindering the Human Rights Council’s decision to launch anindependent international investigation concerning the violations alleged byall parties in Yemen. Then, in defiance, Saudi Arabia threatened the UnitedNations Secretary-General to stop funding the United Nations programs with millionsof dollars if the coalition was not withdrawn from the "list ofshame" for its role in killing and distorting Yemeni children, despite thevast amount of irrefutable evidences documented by the United Nations. The reportof the Secretary-General said that the United Nations verified that at least 785children were killed, and 1168 others were wounded in Yemen battles in 2015.The United Nations also verified 101 attacks on schools and hospitals, almosthalf of them were carried out by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. According tothe statistics of the Civil Coalition for Monitoring the Aggression Crimes, 2367children were killed after 400 days of war, and 2425 children were wounded; these numbersshould not be ignored. Since the beginning of the coalition’s military campaign in March 2015, theInternational Humanitarian Law (IHL) was violated. The United Nations Panel ofExperts identified 119 illegal coalition sorties. Also, non-governmentalorganizations documented more than 50 air strikes, carried out by the coalition,that were random, disproportionate, or against civilian targets, includingbombing homes, markets, schools, hospitals and clinics, which led to hundreds ofcivilian deaths. Saudi Arabia and the other members of the coalition did notshow any willingness to investigate the alleged war crimes. The Saudi Arabia-ledcoalition was listed in the Annex of the Secretary-General’s annual report onchildren and armed conflict because of the killing, distorting, and the attacks on schoolsand hospitals. The SaudiArabia's notorious human rights record clarifies why it is seeking to evaderesponsibility for killing and distorting the children in Yemen, especially whilethe United States continues to sell Saudi Arabia bombs and other weaponsalthough Washington is aware that they may be used in other illegal attacks. The Saudiauthorities, who use the judiciary to issue flogging and death sentences againstthe prisoners of conscience based on unfair trials and repress the freedom ofexpression, will stand in a position that will be recorded by history, whilepressing to remove its name from the list of shame after the crimes that werecommitted. Ali Al-Nemer and Two Others Are Evidences of the Inhumane Treatmentof Children 3 Saudi men are on death row over cases linked to protests they participatedin when they were children. They are: Ali Al-Nemer, Dawood Al-Marhoun, andAbdullah Al-Zaher. All of them were detained for 22 months without accusations andwere prevented from meeting with lawyers before and during trials. Thesentences reveal obvious violations of the legal procedures, includingdepriving the detainees of communicating with lawyers upon arrest and duringthe prolonged detention period, during which the investigators extracted the confessions. The International law prohibits the execution of people over crimes theycommitted when they were children, and the death penalty is limited to the mostserious crimes. The "Convention on the Rights of the Child", which SaudiArabia joined in 1996, prohibits subjecting children to death penalty in allcases (Article 37 (a)). The unfair trials of the prisoners of conscience inSaudi Arabia are only a legal cover-up for the state’s repression against theirdemands to put an end to the long-term discrimination. Article 13 of the "Arab Charter of Human Rights" – which SaudiArabia ratified in 2009 – guarantees the right to a fair trial. Article 15 ofthe "Convention against Torture" – joined by Saudi Arabia in 1997 – obligesthe Kingdom to “ensure that any statement which is established to have beenmade as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in anyproceedings…” As for Bahrain, which is a part of this coalition and participated inthis war in violation of the national and international law, it has been involvedin killing 49 children and fetuses in Bahrain. |