Yemen

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Thursday 15th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Luce, for introducing the debate. Of the many press reports on recent events in Turkey, one that I found shocking was the New York Times report covering the work of Dr Mekkia Mahdi in a northern Yemen health clinic, who was quoted as saying: “We’re surprised the Khashoggi case is getting so much attention while millions of Yemeni children are suffering and nobody gives a damn about them”. According to the reporters, she said those words while sitting by the bed of a seven year-old girl named Amal Hussain, who was severely emaciated. Sadly, as many noble Lords will know, Amal died two weeks ago, with her mother Mariam fearing that her other children would suffer the same fate.

We know, and we have heard it in today’s debate, that for every child like Amal, there are millions more children with stories just like hers and thousands of others whose stories ended when the air strikes came, or when they picked up a cluster bomb, or when the Houthis put a rifle in their hands. The children of Yemen have a right to demand more than sympathy and tears. They are calling out for action. There is no possible military solution without unthinkable human cost for Yemen’s civilians, the innocent people who ask no more than to be allowed to live their lives. Of course, Jeremy Hunt expressed similar sentiments 10 days ago when he said:

“For too long in the Yemen conflict, both sides have believed a military solution is possible, with catastrophic consequences for the people”.


He also confirmed that the UK has been discussing with UN Security Council partners what more the council can do to address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and step up support for the work of the UN special envoy, Martin Griffiths. I hope the Minister can reassure the House that we have stressed to our Security Council partners—in particular, the United States—that for any ceasefire proposals and subsequent peace deal to be sustainable, all parties must be properly involved. We cannot have a ceasefire that will simply lead to failure.

As the Minister has said before, in the search for a political solution there is a special responsibility on the United Kingdom as the penholder on Yemen at the Security Council. However, as we were reminded by the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, the UK has ducked that responsibility for two years by sitting on a draft resolution. Now is the time to bring it forward. As my noble friend Lady Blackstone said, the shocking murder of Jamal Khashoggi has brought into sharp focus the current Government of Saudi Arabia’s apparent disregard for human rights, the rule of law and the sanctity of human life.

On 23 October, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, Mark Lowcock, set out to the Security Council the need for urgent action in five areas: a cessation of hostilities in and around all the infrastructure and facilities on which the aid operation and commercial importers rely; protection of the supply of food and essential goods across the country; a larger and faster injection of foreign exchange into the economy through the Central Bank, along with expediting credit for traders and paying pensioners and civil servants; increased funding and support for the humanitarian operation; and a call on the belligerents to seize this moment to engage fully and openly with the special envoy to end the conflict.

In addition to those areas, I hope that the Minister will be able to confirm that other vital issues will be considered in any draft resolution. In this Chamber, I have repeatedly raised the need for accountability for war crimes and human rights violations. A new resolution should demand that all parties to the conflict abide by the laws of war, including prohibitions on attacks that target civilians and civilian objects, that do not discriminate between civilians and military objectives, and that cause civilian loss disproportionate to the expected military benefit.

I want to pick up on a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Hannay. A new resolution should specifically mention the Saudi-led coalition by name; vague appeals to “all parties” will not have the required impact on Riyadh and the regime there. It should also specifically address arms by calling for the cessation of weapons transfer to any party where there is a clear risk that they will commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. As noble Lords have said, the time for action is now. The people of Yemen cannot wait any longer.