Yemen Files - Part 4
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The most documented humanitarian crisis in the world. The most limited institutional response. This is the question the Yemen Files was always asking.
Nine years of war. 377,000 dead by end of 2021. Arms sales documented as unlawful continued. A Security Council resolution vetoed. No ICC referral. The UN accountability mechanism terminated under Saudi and UAE pressure. The Yemen Files closes here with the question the documented record forces: when the humanitarian cost is the most documented in the world and the political response is the most limited, what does that gap tell us about how the system decides which crises count?
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Arms sales continued · Famine documented simultaneously · Both records exist at the same time02 / 07
The arms sales continued while the famine was being documented. Both records exist. At the same time.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade documented UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia exceeding 23 billion pounds from 2015 to present. SIPRI's Arms Transfers Database documented Saudi Arabia as the world's largest arms importer in 2015-2019. The UK Court of Appeal ruled in 2019 that the British government had acted unlawfully in approving the sales. The UK government suspended new licences, conducted a review, and resumed sales. The famine was confirmed by the UN while the sales continued. The arms transfer record and the humanitarian record exist in the same timeframe.
Oxfam's 2022 report documented UK and US weapons used in hundreds of attacks on civilians between January 2021 and February 2022, killing at least 87 civilians. Forensic Architecture produced an interactive time map linking documented strike data to documented arms transfers. The chain from export licence to strike site to casualty is traceable in the public record. The arms were sold. The famine was documented. The sales continued.
Source: Campaign Against Arms Trade · SIPRI Arms Transfers Database · UK Court of Appeal, 2019 · Oxfam report, 2022 · Forensic Architecture
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Security Council · Russia vetoed Yemen sanctions resolution · February 27 2018 · 11 votes in favour03 / 07
February 27 2018. 11 votes in favour. Russia vetoed the Yemen sanctions resolution. It did not pass.
On February 27 2018, Russia vetoed a British-drafted UN Security Council resolution condemning Iran for violating the 2015 Yemen arms embargo by supplying missiles and drones to Houthi forces. The resolution was supported by 11 votes in favour and opposed by Russia and Bolivia, with China and Kazakhstan abstaining. The resolution had been progressively softened in an attempt to secure Russian support, with the condemnation of Iran dropped and language weakened. Russia was still not satisfied and cast its veto.
Russia proposed a counter-resolution that did not mention Iran. It passed unanimously. The Security Council Report documented that Russia also vetoed a resolution on Yemen sanctions in a later period. The pattern is the same one documented on Syria: the Security Council receives evidence, debates action, and permanent members use the veto to prevent binding measures. The humanitarian record accumulates. The political response does not match it.
Source: Al Jazeera, February 27 2018 · Security Council Report documentation · UN vote record, February 2018
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ICC · No referral for Yemen · Security Council has not referred the case · No formal investigation04 / 07
No ICC referral for Yemen. The Security Council has not referred the case. No formal investigation has been opened.
The International Criminal Court can only investigate situations in Yemen if the Security Council refers the case, or if Yemen itself, or a state on whose territory crimes were committed, accepts ICC jurisdiction. Yemen is a State Party to the Rome Statute, but the ICC has not opened a formal investigation. The UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen concluded in its reports that violations "may amount to war crimes" and recommended a referral to a competent court or tribunal. That referral has not happened.
Saudi Arabia and most coalition members are not signatories to the Rome Statute, meaning the ICC cannot investigate them directly. A Security Council referral would be required to give the ICC jurisdiction over their conduct. Georgetown University's Journal of International Law documented in 2022 that Security Council vetoes on Yemen had blocked both ICC referrals and the renewal of investigative mechanisms, creating a documented gap between the evidence of atrocity crimes and any binding accountability mechanism.
Source: Georgetown Journal of International Law, ICC-Security Council analysis, 2022 · UN GEE Yemen final report 2021 · ICC documentation
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UN GEE mandate terminated October 2021 · Saudi and UAE pressure · No binding ICJ ruling05 / 07
The UN GEE on Yemen had its mandate terminated in October 2021 under Saudi and UAE pressure. No binding international ruling exists.
The UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen was established in 2017 and produced detailed annual reports documenting violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition, Houthi forces and other armed groups. Its 2021 report concluded that conduct by all parties "may amount to war crimes" and called for accountability. In October 2021, the Human Rights Council voted not to renew the GEE's mandate following a campaign by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The accountability mechanism was terminated while the conflict continued.
No binding ruling from the International Court of Justice has been issued on the Yemen conflict. Canada and the Netherlands brought a case against Syria at the ICJ under the Convention Against Torture, demonstrating that such interstate cases are legally available. No equivalent case has been brought for Yemen. The ICJ route requires a state to bring a case against another state. The political conditions for such a case have not materialised. The documented violations of international humanitarian law remain without a binding legal consequence in any international forum.
Source: UN Human Rights Council, GEE Yemen reports 2018-2021 · OHCHR documentation · ICJ case documentation
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Yemen Data Project · Mwatana for Human Rights · The record kept from inside06 / 07
The Yemeni people have kept the record. From inside. Through nine years. The archive is theirs.
The Yemen Data Project documented over 25,000 coalition airstrikes between 2015 and 2022 using open-source verification, cross-referencing strike data against documented civilian harm. Mwatana for Human Rights, a Yemeni civil society organisation, produced detailed reports on violations by all parties, providing the documentation that international organisations then drew on. Their work continued under bombardment, under blockade, and under the threat of reprisal. The international record of the Yemen war depends significantly on documentation produced by Yemenis.
The Yemen Data Project's methodology, primary source verification of each documented strike, produced a record that was used by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN GEE, the Campaign Against Arms Trade, and Forensic Architecture. Mwatana's documentation was cited in the GEE's final report and in ICC advocacy submissions. The people living through the conflict produced the evidence that the international system then failed to act on. That is also part of the documented record.
Source: Yemen Data Project, documentation 2015-2022 · Mwatana for Human Rights, Yemen reports 2017-2024
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The question. Not a claim. Series final.07 / 07 · Series final
The most documented humanitarian crisis in the world. The Security Council resolution vetoed. No ICC referral. The accountability mechanism terminated. When the documented cost is this high and the institutional response this limited, what does that gap tell us about how the system decides which crises count?
The Yemen Files close here. Four episodes. Nine years of documented war. Sana'a old city is still standing. The Yemeni people are still there. The Yemen Data Project is still documenting. Mwatana is still reporting. The archive exists. The question of what the international system will do with it remains open and on the public record.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Yemen Files complete. Two new series every week.Follow UNSILENCED.