The National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights (NCIAVHR) organized hearings for children who are victims of human rights violations in Yemen, in conjunction with International Children's Day, which falls on November 20 of each year.

 

The hearing sessions aimed to identify the violation experienced by the children and affected their set of rights and future in a way that expands the investigations in which the victim-centered approach is applied.

 

Since the beginning of November, the Commission's hearings have targeted children who are victims of the six grave violations, especially the children who have been subjected to injuries, starvation, amputation, and denial of access to humanitarian aid.

 

The violations also included attacks on and disruption of schools, non-compliance with guarantees for the protection of children during the conflict, the direct exposure of children to sniping and the explosion of anti-personnel mines planted on their roads leading to schools, water sources, or firewood.

 

In the individual and group hearing sessions, Commission member, Judge Eshraq Al-Maqtari, explained that the child victims provided information about the danger of life experienced by most of them and the inability of their families to flee due to poverty because of the use of explosive weapons and weapons with wide-ranging effects on the populated areas in which they live.

 

Ms. Al-Maqtari pointed out that these dangers constitute a constant threat to children and their families. She added that some of the children were exposed to more than one violation at the same time, such as disability due to sniping, the destruction of schools and deprivation of education, and their need for protection in all its forms and material and psychological support to overcome the current conditions and practice their normal lives.

 

During this time, the Commission teams examined a number of children's environments in which they were denied the right to education due to the bombing and destruction of schools and the failure to provide salaries to male and female teachers in most of the northern and eastern districts.

 

The Commission’s field teams documented the obstruction of access to aid and humanitarian relief, in addition to the difficulty of obtaining free health care, given the economic conditions of children's families and the deterioration of government hospital services.

 

The Commission, on the International Children's Day, reminds all parties of their obligations towards children and of the prohibition of targeting their environments or infrastructure, especially health and educational facilities, and endangering the lives and safety of children.

 

At the same time, the Commission calls on the international community working in the field of child protection to raise the level of their interventions in the field of humanitarian protection for Yemeni children, whose deficiencies in many aspects have led to children starving to death and many of them being exposed to various diseases.