Thread by @K_Beckerle

1. Today, the UN body tasked w/ "promoting + protecting human rights" failed.

The UNHRC decided to delete the only int'l investigation into #Yemen abuses while the war(s) continue + justice is absent b/c... those implicated would rather not.

A thread on the history of #UNGEE:

2. Since warring parties began fighting, others have been trying to mitigate impact. They've done so in myriad ways, calling for peace, for aid, for int'l law compliance, reporting facts amidst a sea of nonsense, working towards justice. In and outside #Yemen.

3. As part of this wider mosaic of rights-related work, early on, a group of civil society orgs set their sights on the UN Human Rights Council. They wanted to persuade states to establish an international investigation for #Yemen.

4. Such a body could not end the war, sure, but it could keep #Yemen rights issues on the international agenda, it could facilitate later steps towards reparation and justice, + it could, through its reporting, hopefully, influence the behavior of warring parties + other states.

5. Choosing to focus on the UNHRC made sense. Security Council is more powerful, but wasn't going to act. Accountability lang disappeared from #Yemen resolutions when #Saudi/#UAE Coalition, backed by US, entered war. Plus, hey, it's literally called the Human Rights Council.

6. #Yemen-i, regional + int'l activists worked in 2015 + 2016 to try + persuade states at UNHRC to create an int'l investigation. There was intense pushback from #Saudi + the #UAE. As part of this push + pull, the Yemeni gov't reactivated a national commission, based in Aden.

7. In 2016, the Saudi/UAE-led Coalition established its own investigative mechanism, JIAT. Around this time, JIAT regularly released statements ahead of debates in Geneva about Yemen. Coalition allies pointed to JIAT + the Nat Com to argue an int'l inquiry was unnecessary.

8. Against all odds, in 2017, activists succeeded. A group of committed states passed a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council which, three years into the war, created an international investigation into Yemen abuses.

hrw.org/news/2017/10/0…

9. The UN Group of Eminent Experts was specifically tasked w/ investigating rights abuses, publicly reporting and identifying perpetrators.

The GEE ensured that at least once a year a UN-mandated body would raise the question to states of what was being done on #Yemen justice.

10. For the last four years, the UNGEE has investigated abuses, has talked to civil society, has written to and asked questions of the Houthis, the STC, the GoY, the UAE, Saudi, has issued public reports and made recommendations; you can read them here:

ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HR…

11. That meant something. The GEE's reports played into conversations and legal processes on arms sales. The GEE's recommendations on justice expanded the Overton window of what was reasonable for activists to call for. Yemen rights questions remained on states' agendas.

12. The threat of high-level, int'l scrutiny and criticism by UN body was a useful pressure point, including, believe it or not, for some in GoY trying to influence Coalition thinking about what should and should not happen on Yemen justice front. Ex: In 2018, right before HRC...

13. ...set to discuss Yemen, GoY + Coalition announced creation of body to provide "voluntary aid" to victims of airstrikes. Upcoming HRC discussions impacted announcement. In Geneva, Coalition mentioned payments in arguments of why GEE shld not be renewed. The push+pull matters.

14. Most clearly, the UNGEE made it harder -- sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little bit -- for those with power and those with the ability to influence them to ignore the horrific human suffering that the war and those fighting it were, are causing in #Yemen.

15. Today, those responsible for horrific abuses during war succeeded in convincing states on the UN body tasked with protecting human rights to erase the only existing int'l investigation into rights abuses as things get worse. That reverberates in #Yemen, and beyond it.

16. Saudis are not just shielding themselves from scrutiny. We can debate how much impact UNGEE reports had on Houthis, but there are very, very few pathways for credible rights-related pressure on Ansar Allah. Not sure how erasing one helps anyone, now.

17. There's much more to be said, but I'll end with this: I've been lucky enough to see how much activists and advocates have achieved in and on #Yemen rights and justice questions despite incredible forces stacked up against them; today is bad, but let's see what's next.