Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on the establishment of an independent international investigation into reported violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We want to see the Saudi Government investigate allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) which are attributed to them; and for their investigations to be timely, thorough and conclusive. Saudi Arabia has publicly stated that it is investigating reports of alleged violations of IHL, and that any lessons learned will be acted upon. We are also concerned by reports of alleged IHL violations by Houthi/Saleh pro-government forces. We have raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with IHL and the need for thorough and conclusive investigations.