Rights groups call on UN to stop child recruitment in Yemen

Hossam al-Haddad

A number of human rights groups, especially the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, called on the United Nations to intervene to prevent the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen from recruiting children and putting them on the frontline of battles in the war-ravaged Arab state.

The monitor said the recruitment of children in Yemen amounted to a war crime in the light of the rules of the International Criminal Court.

In a joint statement addressed to the 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council with the rights group Geo Expertise, the Euro-Med Monitor said the Houthi group in Yemen continues for the fifth year to recruit children extensively.

It added that the Iran-backed militia includes the children in hostilities without the slightest regard to their age.

In this, they two organizations said in their statement to the meeting of the council, breach international agreements that prohibit the recruitment of children under all circumstances.

They referred to a report published last month by the Euro-Med Monitor and SAM organization, which documented the Houthi group’s recruitment of more than 10,000 children between the ages of seven and 17 in the areas under its control in Yemen.

Hundreds of these children, it said, were killed and thousands of others wounded during military operations

The Euro-Mediterranean and Geo-Expertise noted that the Houthi militia uses complex patterns of child recruitment, the most dangerous of which is ideological mobilization.

The children’s simple minds are fed with violent and extremist ideas, they said.

They added that the same children are subjected to violations during the conscription period, including deprivation from food, imprisonment, physical assault, sexual abuse, and death threats.