UN urged to blacklist Saudi Arabia, Israel as children rights violators

A global network aimed at defending children during armed conflicts has called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to blacklist Saudi Arabia and Israel as grave violators of children’s rights.

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict made the call in its 2017 report released on Wednesday, in which it reminded that Saudi Arabia was removed from last year’s list by former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after the Riyadh threatened to halt funding several UN programs.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly attacking Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to bring the former government back to power and undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

“In 2015, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces carried out numerous incidents of killing and maiming of children and attacks against schools and hospitals that were documented in the secretary general’s 2016 annual report on children and armed conflict,” read the report.

Yemeni rescue workers search for victims amid the rubble of a destroyed building following Saudi airstrikes on the capital Sana’a on October 8, 2016.
It added that in order to remain off the 2017 list, Saudi Arabia was required to demonstrate a sustained commitment towards refraining from violations against children.

“It is clear the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has failed to do so,” stressed the report before presenting a lengthy list of the kingdom’s atrocities in 2016.