To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many allegations of violations of International Human Law in Yemen by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia his Department has received in each of the last 12 months; and what steps his Department has taken to investigate those allegations.
Answered on
21 March 2018
As at 21 March 2018, the number of alleged instances of breaches or violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in Yemen listed on the "Tracker" database maintained by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is 350. Of these, 14 are duplicate entries, which means that some incidents will have been recorded on more than one occasion, likely because of the incomplete nature of Non-Governmental Organisation and media reporting upon which the MOD relies to update the "Tracker". Aggregating this information would be misleading without the addition of sensitive contextual information, which I am withholding as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and other States.
The MOD does not investigate allegations of Saudi-led coalition IHL violations. The Saudi-led Coalition is best placed to do this, and does so through its Joint Incident Assessment Team. MOD analysis of alleged IHL violations is used to form an overall view on Saudi Arabia's approach and attitude to IHL.