Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 January 2016 to Question 15523, when he last reviewed alleged violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen.
Mr Philip Hammond
The UK keeps adherence to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) under constant review. The Ministry of Defence monitors alleged IHL violations, using available information, which in turn informs our overall assessment of IHL compliance in Yemen. We consider a range of information from government sources, foreign governments, the media and international non-governmental organisations. The UK government has regularly raised with the Saudi Government the need to comply with IHL in Yemen and we continue to engage with them on this. I raised the issue of compliance with IHL during my October visit to Saudi Arabia. We have also raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with IHL. It is important that open and transparent investigations are conducted into all incidents where it is alleged that IHL has been breached. We welcome the public announcement by Saudi Arabia to establish a fact finding committee into the alleged airstrike on MSF mobile clinic in Taiz on 2 December.
