Under intense pressure from the Saudi government, the U.N. secretary general removed the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from a blacklist of child killers only 72 hours after the list was made public.
The coalition had been listed in the appendix of the U.N’s annual report on children and armed conflict, under “parties that kill or maim children” and “parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals.”
According to the report, at least 785 children were killed and 1,168 injured in Yemen last year alone, 60 percent by coalition airstrikes. The report documents dozens of coalition attacks against Yemeni schools and hospitals.
Saudi Arabia is an unlikely but powerful voice in U.N. human rights deliberations. Last year, despite carrying out a record number of beheadings, the kingdom became the chair of the U.N.’s 47-nation Human Rights Council — a decision that met with international outrage, but that the U.S. said it “welcomed.”
In a press conference outside the United Nations Security Council headquarters on Monday, the Saudi ambassador to the U.N. reacted angrily to the child-killing report and requested that it “be corrected immediately so it does not reflect the accusations that have been made against the coalition.”
Since the war started in March 2015, more than 6,400 people have been killed, the majority by coalition bombs. The Saudi-led coalition has also devastated Yemen by imposing a strict naval blockade on the desert nation, which imports 90 percent of its food and 100 percent of its medicine.
According to UNICEF in March, nearly 320,000 children in Yemen are at risk of “severe acute malnutrition.” UNICEF also estimated that the war caused more than 10,000 Yemeni children under the age of 5 to die from preventable diseases and said millions more are at risk of diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections, and measles.
The Saudi government put out a series of statements Monday condemning the report and praising the war. “Everyone is witnessing that [the coalition] has been carrying out a noble task towards the Yemeni people,” one statement from the Saudi Press Agency read. “And fighting the insurgents and terrorists, as well as supporting and providing relief for Yemeni people, especially their children.”
The government blamed the Houthi rebels for children’s deaths. They are the ones “besieging the cities, starving the people, and shelling the hospitals,” said the Shura, an advisory council to Saudi Arabia’s king, in another statement.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the report was revised to “review jointly the cases and numbers cited in the text,” in order to “reflect the highest standards of accuracy possible.” He also announced that he would receive a team from the coalition in New York to conduct a “joint review” ahead of discussions on the report scheduled for August.
The Saudi ambassador, however, announced that the change to the list was “final and unconditional,” and that he had been “vindicated,” the Associated Press reported.
The removal sparked outrage from advocates and monitoring organizations. “The U.N. itself has extensively documented the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes in Yemen that have caused hundreds of children’s deaths and hit many schools and hospitals,” said Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch. “As this list gives way to political manipulation, it loses its credibility and taints the secretary general’s legacy on human rights.”
Top photo: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signs the book of condolence for the late king of Saudi Arabia watched by Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi in January 2015.
The UN shouldn’t be so hard on the medieval head-choppers of Saudi Arabia; the US has killed a lot more people in a lot more countries in the past 15 years, using smart, shiny, clean, modern, god-fearing bombs. You’re welcome, world!
“parties that kill or maim children” and “parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals.” …. and add
‘and parties that finance and encourage them through among other means, arms sales’.
The absolutely worst SG in UN history,a Korean stooge facilitator of Zioempire.
Thank you for a most informative article.
Business as usual. Putting a Saudi in charge of human rights is a sick joke.
f-ing cowards the UN is
Ban Ki-Moon is a U.S. lackey, as have all the Secretaries General since Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who the U.S. had removed because he wouldn’t do & say what the U.S. wanted.
Until the security council is abolished and the general assembly can pass binding laws and other international demands that it backs up with force, the U.N. will continue to be nothing but a totally illegitimate tool of primarily the U.S. and secondarily NATO.
Great, so you want a totally unaccountable group running around the world bombing willy nilly wearing a light blue flag replacing the current thugs flying its red, white, and navy blue flag.
We already have ” totally unaccountable group running around the world bombing willy nilly.” It’s called the U.S. At least the general assembly would represent the wishes of the majority of governments instead of just those of white people.
frikkit. While we’re at it, let’s just legalise torture, genocide and disappearing people. Also shooting protesters could be legalised.
#BDS
The UN under Ban-ki Moon has become one of the most corrupt and disgraced international agencies and that is why he is a favorite of the western nations and Israel.
So Mr Fox, how do you like your henhouse? Are you comfortable? Do you need anything?
This is simply a case of Not Biting The Hand That Feeds (or its Dictatorships). I wish the U.N. Secretary General had more political savvy and a spine.
Ban Ki-Moon is really something of a tool, but that does reflect the UN leader’s selection process, in which the U.S., China, Russia, France or Britain can veto any candidate. (Note that this is the original nuclear weapons club). However, he’s more of a tool of the United States, being from South Korea, than any other member of that club.
Saudi Arabia is a client puppet state of the United States, as is Israel, so they are always protected from UN sanction. Notice that Israel was left off the 2015 list?
“In Gaza, at least 561 children – 557 Palestinians and 4 Israelis – were killed, and 4,271 were injured, all but 22 of them Palestinians, the report said.” – Times of Israel, 2015.
Nevertheless, the UN does document the global scale of violence against children, although their own ‘peacekeeping forces’ have been involved in that as well, see the April 20 2016 document, still up on a UN website:
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N16/111/19/PDF/N1611119.pdf
“The reporting period was marked by most disturbing cases of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers”
While the ‘official list’ may not include Saudi Arabia, that document does detail the Saudi coalition’s role in the slaughter in Yemen:
“The United Nations verified a sixfold increase in the number of children killed and maimed compared with 2014, totalling 1,953 child casualties (785 children killed and 1,168 injured). . . Of the casualties, 60 per cent (510 deaths and 667 injuries) were attributed to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition . . . Of the child casualties, 60 per cent were caused by air strikes, predominantly in Amanat al-Asimah, Hajjah and Sa‘dah. Significant civilian casualties, including children, as a result of air strikes continued to be documented early in 2016.”
Significantly, the UN report does not mention the use of cluster munitions against civilian targets by the Saudi coalition, despite that having been extensively documented; under U.S. law, which does allows the sale of U.S.-made cluster weapons to Saudi Arabia for use against military targets, proof of use these weapons against schools, hospitals and villages by the Saudi coalition would be a violation of U.S. law – but who has standing to sue?
“The bomb in question, which was dropped by the Saudi-led coalition in its campaign of air raids, recovered in the area revealed markings that lead it back to a US factory in Tennessee . The facts above are damning, but given the complexities and futility of international law most likely no one will be called to account.” – middleeasteye, January 16 2016
Obama has now overseen more arms deals to the Saudis than any other president in U.S. history, far surpassing GW Bush – President Willie Loman, the Salesman-in-Chief, sucking up to any dictator willing to keep the last domestic U.S. manufacturing sector, arms production, turning over. As usual, this leads right back to Wall Street investments in cluster bomb manufacturers:
“Financial Firms Invested $27 Billion In Cluster Bomb Makers, Report Shows
By Kathleen Caulderwood, International Business Times 11/27/14″
amazing-
i think the US economy is past the point of no return on its addiction to war and prisons.
You’re a fool if you think the prison system benefits the US economy overall.
Neither the war machine or private prison help America,but they do help the stockholding 1%.That is the bottom line,not US.
Ban Ki-Moon is really something of a tool, but that does reflect the UN leader’s selection process, in which the U.S., China, Russia, France or Britain can veto any candidate. (Note that this is the original nuclear weapons club). However, he’s more of a tool of the United States, being from South Korea, than any other member of that club.
Saudi Arabia is a client puppet state of the United States, as is Israel, so they are always protected from UN sanction. Notice that Israel was left off the 2015 list?
“In Gaza, at least 561 children – 557 Palestinians and 4 Israelis – were killed, and 4,271 were injured, all but 22 of them Palestinians, the report said.” – Times of Israel, 2015.
Nevertheless, the UN does document the global scale of violence against children, although their own ‘peacekeeping forces’ have been involved in that as well, see the April 20 2016 document, still up on the UN website:
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N16/111/19/PDF/N1611119.pdf
“The reporting period was marked by most disturbing cases of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers”
While the ‘official list’ may not include Saudi Arabia, that document does detail the Saudi coalition’s role in the slaughter in Yemen:
“The United Nations verified a sixfold increase in the number of children killed and maimed compared with 2014, totalling 1,953 child casualties (785 children killed and 1,168 injured). . . Of the casualties, 60 per cent (510 deaths and 667 injuries) were attributed to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition . . . Of the child casualties, 60 per cent were caused by air strikes, predominantly in Amanat al-Asimah, Hajjah and Sa‘dah. Significant civilian casualties, including children, as a result of air strikes continued to be documented early in 2016.”
Significantly, the UN report does not mention the use of cluster munitions against civilian targets by the Saudi coalition, despite that having been extensively documented; under U.S. law, which does allows the sale of U.S.-made cluster weapons to Saudi Arabia for use against military targets, proof of use these weapons against schools, hospitals and villages by the Saudi coalition would be a violation of U.S. law – but who has standing to sue?
“The bomb in question, which was dropped by the Saudi-led coalition in its campaign of air raids, recovered in the area revealed markings that lead it back to a US factory in Tennessee . The facts above are damning, but given the complexities and futility of international law most likely no one will be called to account.” – middleeasteye, January 16 2016
Obama has now overseen more arms deals to the Saudis than any other president in U.S. history, far surpassing GW Bush – President Willie Loman, the Salesman-in-Chief, sucking up to any dictator willing to keep the last domestic U.S. manufacturing sector, arms production, turning over. As usual, this leads right back to Wall Street investments in cluster bomb manufacturers:
http://www.ibtimes.com/financial-firms-invested-27-billion-cluster-bomb-makers-report-shows-1730344
Sadly, once again we have very little say in the politics…. the U.S. contributes most of their budget and have the most control and say of it. That is easily proven by the fact we have been in Afghanistan/Iraq for over 14 years…
The president gave a speech at the Air Force Academy on the success of his drone war ……one of the names he mentioned was that of Alwalki a U.S. Citizen – killed BUT he left off the killing of his 14 year old son killed 4 days later by another drone attack……U.S. Citizens are not safe
The sad state of US media is highlighted by the fact that few Western News organizations will publish these kinds of stories. There is supposed to be a UN human rights report on Ukraine that is being suppressed by the Western Media as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9LVl0qLzg
It is time the United Nations was dissolved. It’s a totally useless club.
It’s not so much the UN that is useless, as that the governments who make up its membership are spineless and (in many cases) corrupt. How many governments direct their UN representatives to vote with the USA, regardless of the issues or their merits? And why? That is the real question. The UN is merely a symptom, and abolishing it would not make matters a white better. The only solution is for the citizens of nations to take back their government and make sure that political leaders who serve the interests of other nations – who, in other words, commit treason – are appropriately dealt with.
Well, a start would be having states align with nations so people that feel a common kinship work together. But Lincoln ended that possibility in the US and Wilson throughout the world with his allowance of things like Sykes-Picot and carving up Indochina after World War I. Otherwise the state is just an administrative agency used to plunder its subjects rather than reflecting their wills.
Lincoln?WTF?He was the guy who would have re-melded the South back into the US,instead they murdered him,and we were left with revengeful abolitionist idiots of punishment and suppression,which led to a further divide.
He asked the band to play Dixie,on learning of Lees surrender.
Lincoln invaded the south to enforce the tariff. He didn’t care a lick about slaves or blacks, except when it was militarily expedient to save his beloved Union. He denied the right of self-government. Read his quote to Horace Greely if he cared about anything other than empire and control.
It isn’t just the United Nations. President Obama needs to get permission from the Saudis before he can release the 28 pages redacted from the 9/11 report.
Sad.
How are we going to take back our government and make sure that political leaders are serving the interests of this nation first when our outsourced government is everywhere and in everything? I mean beyond a slogan and personality that says take charge
Billionaires don’t become billionaires by restricting their interests in what used to be our borders and being an ass to everyone outside of them and they know it unless they intend to pay for the use force to get what they want.
Our “allies” co-decide what decisions are made in this country.
There is not one candidate out there that is going to be able stop that without suffering backlash that we aren’t going to be able to see or prevent.
With how we’ve been defending Israel and Saudi Arabia lately you get the impression those two countries have something extra on us and there are other possible reasons.
The UN isnt going anywhere. Everyone complains about it until they say or do something that supports their views or argument and then you get quotes. Then there are other nations involved. Ending the UN would be a very loud symbolic end to peace and scare the shit out of them enough to likely prepare to make some alliances against this country.
Absolutely!! Along with every other Government in the world. No one needs Government to survive. Governments also do not protect you, in fact they make you less safe. All they do is lick the nutsucks of the Globalist that pay them off. They are very much paid prostitutes. And I say prostitutes bc most of these same people swing both ways. They are a Satanic Cult run by the Rothschild’s. The people of Europe should show up at Bilderberg this week and make a stand against this NWO. They take away guns in Europe, flood it with millions of Muslims that believe in the Koran and Sheria Law. Then laugh in your face and say “pay more taxes sheeple”.
This will go on until someone courageous as George Washington takes a stand against the Globalist family/cult.
Amen! Nete Peedham makes a good Uncle Tom to being a slave to statism.
From one extreme to another — on one hand the world is ruled by a handful of people who believe in the power of aristocracy, guns and money, and on the other hand we have another handful of people like yourself who think that anarchy, which logically leads to banditry and “every man for himself”-mentality that is positively anti-evolutionary, is the way to go. According to your logic, a particular government is bad, ergo the concept of governments is bad? Let’s apply your logic to other concepts as well:
– One surgeon is sued for malpractice. All surgery should be prohibited. Nobody needs a surgeon to survive.
– A person uses a kitchen knife to stab their spouse. All knives should be banned. Nobody needs a knife to survive.
– A rabid wolf kills a child. All wolves should be erased. Nobody needs a wolf to survive.
What kind of Trotskyite extremist logic is that???
A government is, as the name suggests, a governing force. Human society has governing forces by nature because our communities are so large, that we cannot maintain organization without reliable overseers, in the same way that a factory needs to have management, a court needs a judge or a school needs a principal.
It’s not the concept that is innately wrong, but the methods that currently support corruption in government throughout the world. Your rabid rant doesn’t attack megacorporations or even touch upon banking, but you are sure to mention (in the typical vile and perverted Illuminati nutjob out-of-touch-with-reality manner):
– Anarchy
– “Globalists”
– Evil bisexual politicians
– Rothschild’s Satanic cult
– Bilderberg (of course)
– New World Order
– Islamophobia
– Sheeple
– some kind of weird glorification of George Washington (who was supported by German and Dutch aristocrats and bankers, by the way, and a traitor to his own men after having abandoned them once and on another occasion, while fighting FOR the British, sabotaged his own campaign)
Here is the harsh reality. If you went out more and socialized with people, worked a job or studied at school or something of that ilk, you’d probably be more in touch with reality (unless you have a mental or social disorder to prohibits you, in which case I’m very sorry):
– There is no such thing as “globalist family cult”. There are aristocrats, bankers and mega-corporations that have clout across several nations, that much is true, but their dealings are mostly rather overt. What you see is what you get. And what we see is plenty harmful enough. They support capitalism (or imperialism, rather, which is the globalized, digitalized form of capitalism) because they still believe in feudal values (birth right, wealth, hierarchy), despite the fact that technology and social philosophies have marched on. Bertrand Russell put it in better words than I can.
– Politicians always serve somebody. Genuinely democratic politicians serve the public; any other type of politician serves whoever has the most money and power. Politicians who do not serve anybody but themselves are called absolute rulers and are considered the very bottom of the totalitarian barrel — but those don’t exist in nature, because even proclaimed totalitarian absolutist rulers follow the instructions of their backers.
(also, not quite sure what sexual orientation has to do with anything — a bisexual politician is somehow viler than a heterosexual politician? If a politician turns out to be a pedophile or a debaucher, then he or she should be charged as such, and it should be an individual case and have nothing to do with a serious discussion of politics or economy.)
– Rothschild or any other Old Money families doesn’t care about religion. Bankers are basically Godless people, and only use superstition and symbolism in order to manipulate soft-headed people who rave about Satanism and whatever. In reality, Rothschild and others like this family only worship money — money and power. Pretty simple, really.
– Bilderberg is just of a thousand different business conferences that businessmen, bankers and politicians engage in on a regular basis. It’s not an Illuminati meeting or an orgy or whatever it is you nutjobs think it is. And it doesn’t matter what businessmen say or do in these meetings, because the meetings themselves don’t matter. It’s what mega-corps and banks do to the working public that matters. Overproduction, deflation, inflation, unemployment, mercantilism, pauperization, urbanification — these things matter. Bilderberg doesn’t.
– “NWO” is a fata morgana, an illusion given off by the fact that mega-corporations are owned by mega-banks around the world, and in turn manipulate politicians, who in turn manipulate armies for the cause of the bankers and corporations. It may look like a huge network of conspiracies and secret societies, but in reality, it’s the next logical step for capitalism, namely imperialism. If you are serious about hating capitalism, you should read up on Marx and Lenin (or anyone, for starters).
– “take away guns in Europe”??? I don’t get what you’re trying to say here. Gun laws haven’t changed in Europe. If you mean that soldiers have left Europe or are on idle-mode, well, let me put that fear of yours to rest: Europe is as violent and oppressive as ever, and it sends a steady force of soldiers and pilots to attack the rest of the world.
– If you lived in Europe (you probably don’t — I don’t even believe you live in America. Like most Trotskyite trolls, you probably live in Israel), you’d know that Europe is far from “flooded with Muslims”. By the way, muslim immigrants have existed since after WWII — mostly in the form of “Gastarbeiter” kidnapped by Germans from Turkey to rebuild their god-forsaken hovel of a country. The “millions of muslim” Germany claims to be accepting/refusing are mostly mercs that Germany hired to terrorize Greece, Italy, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and, finally, Ukraine and Russia (The UK discovered that Germany had taken a hefty credit from Japanese banks to that end). The UK has also discovered that most of these so-called refugees aren’t even from war-torn countries. Actual refugees are a pretty small number.
– What it actually takes to tear down capitalism is global class awareness and unity of all proletarians regardless of nationality, gender, age, religion or income-bracket (there is such a thing as a rich proletarian, believe it or not) to enforce genuine democratic elections, abolish banks, abolish taxes, punish aristocrats and capitalists (and freeze their accounts and assets), and stop all wars. The only way to do /this/ much is to take hold of the government when times get chaotic, such as during wartime. When the capitalist sends us Americans out to war, we ought to stand our grand and turn on the capitalist instead — not using force to get things our way, to but to remain armed to defend ourselves when the capitalist attacks /us/ when we demand democracy, freedom and equality. In the meantime, the best we can do is raise awareness, educate others and help out our immediate communities (charity starts at home, after all).
I agree with you on education and awareness. I’d suggest reading “The Ethics of Liberty” by Murray Rothbard and “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt. Both fairly short and digestible.
Europe should be tar and feathering all their leaders who have let USzion destabilize Europe for Israel.Just as we should ours for letting them destabilize Central and South America into army ant border crossings.
Idiots.
Let’s dissolve NATO first – Trump, despite his astonishing ability to sabotage himself with dumb racist statements to the press about ‘Mexican judges’, is right about cutting off the flow of U.S. taxdollar money to that decrepit Cold War dinosaur, while Hillary Clinton and her advisors want to give them a $100 billion slush fund.
I’m afraid I can’t support either Clinton or Trump in November, however – this year, I’m writing in Cthulhu, Lord of the Abyss, Destroyer of Worlds, for President. Join us! Hope and Change 2016!
https://cthulhuforamerica.com/
Nah, we just need to re-institute a PUHCA-like rule to rein in the UN. That will fix it. That way the US couldn’t control most of the rest of the votes through force and bribery.