GENEVA – Saudi Arabia underscored the importance of international consensus and implementation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions to end the political crisis in Yemen. Addressing the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council here, Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, permanent representative of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations in Geneva, also called for extending support for the UN's special envoy for Yemen and exerting all efforts aimed at reaching a solution to the crisis and helping the people of the Arab country. Referring to the Human Rights Council's rejection of the resolution titled "The Situation of Human Rights in Yemen," Al-Wasel said this rejection was a response to the just and legitimate demands to end the activities of the investigators, known as the Group of Eminent Experts in Yemen. These demands were supported by the majority of the Council member states from various geographical regions. The Council rejected a resolution on the human rights situation in Yemen, which if approved would have extended the mandate for the Council's investigations of war crimes in the country. Al-Wasel noted that the reports of the Group of Experts have ignored the international initiatives and resolutions issued on Yemen, including the UN Security Council Resolution No. 2216. "The team abused the mandate granted to it in an unprecedented manner, as it derived most of the information contained in its reports from non-governmental organizations that are sympathetic to the Houthi terrorist militia," he said, noting that this had in effect confused international public opinion. It deepened the gap between segments and sects of the Yemeni population, legitimized the militia's position and overlooked the militia's grave human rights violations by portraying the Yemeni crisis as a dispute between the conflicting parties and not as a coup carried out by militias that had seized power by force. "The presence of two draft resolutions that are presented in two separate sessions of the Council reveals the sharp polarization among the members, and shakes the reputation of the Human Rights Council," Al-Wasel said while cautioning that this will not serve the interests of the Yemeni people.
