Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government is doing to encourage Saudi Arabia and other parties to the conflict in Yemen to refrain from using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) provides that no weapon should be used indiscriminately, disproportionately, or to deliberately target civilians and civilian objects. These rules are applicable to situations where explosive weapons are used in populated areas.

We take all reports of alleged violations of IHL in Yemen very seriously. We have raised our concerns with the Saudi Arabian-led coalition and received assurances that they are complying with IHL. We continue to engage with them on those assurances and urge all parties to the conflict to act in compliance with IHL.