UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [2] on Dec. 6 urged all sides in Yemen to cease ongoing deadly attacks [3] and live up to previous commitments to investigate the serious human rights violations of its former government. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR [4]), meanwhile condemned all Yemeni factions [5] after claiming that as many as 22 people have been killed in the city of Taiz by shootings and shellings since Dec. 1, including two children. Despite tanks withdrawing from the city under a ceasefire pact to end violence that has consumed the country for nearly 10 months, witnesses and activists have claimed that forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh shot and killed a woman protester in Taiz just this week. Shamdasani added that the ongoing severity of the clashes between armed rebels and the Yemeni army warrant an immediate intervention by the OHCHR. She called on Yemeni government officials to allow a UN investigation as soon as possible. The Yemeni government has yet to issue a response.
From Jurist [6], Dec. 6. Used with permission.
See our last posts Yemen [7] and the Arab revolutions [2].
