Home Page Iblagh News English [iblagh.com]
Supreme Council for Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation expressed its hope from the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock not to overlook the fact that the UN mechanisms, since the beginning of the aggression to date, regarding human rights violations in Yemen have remained inadequate.
“The failure of the United Nations to take serious and urgent steps to stop the aggression, lift the siege, establish an independent international mechanism to investigate violations and crimes and ensure justice for the victims, accountability and non-impunity for the violators, has played a major role in the continuation of the daily series of killings of thousands of civilians and the aggravation of the humanitarian catastrophe and the continuation of the serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law for five years,” the Council said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Supreme Council indicated that it followed up on what was stated in Lowcock’s briefing to the Security Council last June 24, which included the five priority issues (protection of civilians, humanitarian access, funding, the economy and progress towards peace), through which he sought to place the world in front of two options, either to “support the humanitarian response in Yemen and help to create the space for a sustainable political solution, or watch Yemen fall off the cliff.”
While it noted the untiring efforts of Lowcock, the Council pointed out that it is appropriate to provide some clarifications to correct some errors and false information that he signed and mentioned in the content of the briefing.It stressed that the fears of the UN and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs about the dangers of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Yemen, and the catastrophic consequences that will follow in terms of the size of potential and confirmed infections and numbers of deaths, were not absurd but were facts, given the magnitude of the humanitarian catastrophe that Yemen is going through, food insecurity and health sector fragility due to the aggression and the blockade.
The Humanitarian Coordination Council noted that Yemen remained for months away from the epidemic, and the UN could enhance protection and prevent the spread of the epidemic by standing up to attempts by the countries of aggression to introduce the virus into Yemen, through Yemenis and African migrants deportees. The World Health Organization could have strengthened the capacities of the Ministry of Health by providing protection and preventive requirements for the epidemic, solutions and examination devices.
“It is natural that in light of the aggression, the blockade, the humanitarian catastrophe, the acute shortage of medicines and the lack of oil derivatives, the consequences of the corona pandemic would be disastrous,” it said. “But it is no less than the size of the victims of those suffering from diseases and other epidemics, in addition, there are victims of thousands of civilians as a result of direct strikes, malnutrition and patients who were unable to travel abroad to receive treatment as a result of the siege and the continued closure of Sana’a airport.”The Council also expressed regret for the false information mentioned in the briefing on cancelling inbound staff flight to Sana’a.
“It seems that there is a clear deficiency and deficiency in the Office of the Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in receiving and sharing information with his coordination offices around the world, which caused him to make this fatal error in his briefing,” the Council confirmed. “What requires clarification of the upcoming and outbound UN flights through Sana’a International Airport is that it is based on the statements of permits issued by the Council to international organizations and the data of air navigation traffic at Sana’a airport from January to June 2020, specifically the pre-June 15 flights briefed as the period in which international staff were obstructed and prevented.
“The total number of flights from January to June this year is 253, the nature of which is the transportation of UN staff and aid shipments, while the total of incoming employees reached 129, the departures reached 146 employees and 58 landings and takeoffs during June and ten trips from 1 to 15 June,” it added.The Council pointed out the necessity of considering Lowcock in his briefing on the nature of the precautionary measures “isolation, closure of land and sea ports and cancellation of international and domestic trips” taken by the countries of the world to confront the outbreak of the corona epidemic as unilateral measures according to the confrontational strategy decided by each country, rather than the UN that failed and was unable to unite efforts and lead the world in dealing with the epidemic.
The Supreme Council affirmed that the arrival of UN staff was not hindered, especially after reaching a joint mechanism that included a commitment to subject them to self-quarantining for 14 days.”However, if we assume that the decisions of the official authority concerned with facing the corona epidemic required, within the framework of the precautionary and preventive measures, to close Sana’a airport in front of international flights, they would be preventive decisions binding on all and not arbitrary targeting workers in international organizations and not others.”
Noting that it is not acceptable to be described in the briefing as being within the practices of preventing and obstructing the movement of international workers.Meanwhile, the statement called for the necessity of taking a firm stand against the practices of the countries of aggression by preventing the arrival of oil and gas ships to the port of Hodeidah despite obtaining permits from the United Nations after being subject to inspection according to the mechanism adopted by the UN in this regard.
It warned against the continuation of the warships of coalition from maritime piracy on oil ships and taking and seizing them off the coast of Jizan, that will have severe consequences and catastrophic effects on the continuation of the work of many vital facilities associated with the daily lives of citizens and will deprive millions of access to the services necessary for their survival, such as health and water, and will cause millions of suffering.The Council for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicated that it is unacceptable to characterize the crime of the coalition’s use of blockade and starvation as a method of warfare and a struggle between the parties for access to financial resources and revenues in the briefing.
#Yemen #UN #Council_for_Coordination_of_Humanitarian_Affairs
