Tag: Children recruitment

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) condemned policies that deprive hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen of healthcare and immunization, rejecting the use of vaccines and medical supplies as instruments of political pressure or collective punishment in the context of the armed conflict.

The Center stated that Yemen’s health crisis is worsening as a result of decisions that prevent comprehensive door-to-door vaccination campaigns, particularly in densely populated governorates under the control of the Houthi group. According to the Center, these policies, together with disinformation campaigns targeting vaccines, have left approximately 600,000 children without immunization. This figure represents 35 percent of all children who have not received vaccinations across the Middle East and North Africa region, while vaccination coverage for polio, measles, and diphtheria has fallen below 50 percent.

The statement noted that more than 80 percent of children infected with measles had not received a single vaccine dose, while Yemen reportedly loses more than 100 children every day to preventable diseases. The Center warned that the situation could amount to a long-term process of destruction.

The Center stated that this deprivation is incompatible with international humanitarian law and international criminal law. It cited Article 54 of Additional Protocol I and Article 14 of Additional Protocol II, which prohibit the starvation of civilians and the deprivation of objects indispensable to their survival. The Center also referred to the obligations set out in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Center stressed that the deliberate obstruction of access to medical supplies may constitute a war crime and may give rise to individual criminal responsibility under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It further stated that such conduct may amount to crimes against humanity where it is intended to subject populations to living conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population.

The statement also highlighted the economic and demographic consequences of the crisis. The resurgence of epidemics such as polio may result in permanent disabilities that exclude thousands of people from the future workforce, push families into poverty, and force them to liquidate productive assets to meet emergency medical costs. According to the Center, these consequences erode human capital and divert limited resources toward emergency responses to human-made crises.

The American Center for Justice called on the international community and United Nations agencies to intervene urgently to end the medical blockade, insulate the health sector from political and military considerations, and ensure that vaccination teams can operate without restrictions. The Center also called on international commissions of inquiry and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to document these alleged violations and develop legal case files identifying the potential individual criminal responsibility of leaders implicated in restricting vaccination efforts. It further urged states exercising universal jurisdiction to initiate legal proceedings against those responsible for depriving civilians of healthcare and to ensure that they do not evade accountability.

Statement on the Deprivation of Children of Vaccines and the Spread of Epidemics in Yemen

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) unequivocally condemns the systematic policies that deprive hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen of their fundamental right to healthcare and immunization. The Center also rejects the use of vaccines and health supplies as instruments of political pressure or collective punishment in the context of the armed conflict.

Yemen’s health crisis is worsening as a result of deliberate decisions that prevent comprehensive door-to-door vaccination campaigns, particularly in densely populated governorates under the control of the Houthi group.

The number of children deprived of immunization is approaching 600,000, equivalent to 35 percent of all children who have not received vaccines across the Middle East and North Africa region. These restrictive policies are accompanied by organized disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining confidence in vaccines and have contributed to vaccination coverage for polio, measles, and diphtheria falling below 50 percent.

Available statistics indicate that more than 80 percent of children infected with measles had not received a single vaccine dose. Yemen reportedly loses more than 100 children every day to preventable diseases, making the situation akin to a long-term process of destruction.

The Center maintains that this deliberate deprivation constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Article 54 of Additional Protocol I and Article 14 of Additional Protocol II prohibit the starvation of civilians and the deprivation of objects indispensable to their survival.

The Center further maintains that the deliberate obstruction of medical supplies from reaching civilians constitutes a war crime giving rise to individual criminal responsibility under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It adds that such conduct may amount to crimes against humanity where populations are subjected to harsh living conditions intended to bring about the destruction of part of the population.

This denial violates the core obligations set out in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which require all parties to protect children from disease and provide comprehensive immunization programmes.

The impact of these policies extends beyond a public health setback. It undermines the foundations of the local economy and affects the demographic structure of Yemeni society, both now and in the future. The resurgence of deadly epidemics such as polio may result in permanent disabilities that exclude thousands of people from future economic participation, increase poverty and dependency, and force families to liquidate productive assets to meet emergency medical costs.

These pressures deepen poverty, divert resources away from development projects and the improvement of essential services, erode human capital, which is the principal driver of societal recovery, and trap scarce financial resources in emergency responses to human-made crises.

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) calls on the international community and United Nations agencies to intervene immediately to end the medical blockade imposed on children in Yemen. The Center emphasizes the need to insulate health-related issues from political and military considerations and to guarantee unhindered access for vaccination teams to reach all households without restriction.

The Center calls on international commissions of inquiry and independent United Nations mechanisms to document these alleged violations and develop comprehensive legal case files identifying the potential individual criminal responsibility of leaders who issue decisions restricting vaccination campaigns or incite opposition to vaccines. The Center also urges the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to receive communications concerning these alleged crimes.

The Center appeals to states that apply the principle of universal jurisdiction to initiate legal proceedings and pursue those implicated in depriving Yemeni civilians of essential healthcare. It calls for measures to ensure that those responsible do not evade accountability and to protect future generations from gradual destruction.

Issued by the American Center for Justice (ACJ)
July 30, 2026

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) unequivocally condemns the ongoing sniper attacks targeting civilians in the city of Taiz. The latest victim, 14-year-old Ibrahim Jalal Amin, was fatally shot by a Houthi-affiliated sniper positioned in the Al-Mawshaki area while returning home from school on April 5. This incident reflects a recurring pattern of conduct that deliberately targets individuals least able to protect themselves or respond to hostile fire.

The deployment of precision sniper weapons equipped with advanced optics provides the perpetrator with clear visual identification of the victim, thereby eliminating any plausible claim of accidental or indiscriminate harm. The targeting of children and women in densely populated civilian areas constitutes a deliberate and calculated military practice aimed at crippling community life and engineering demographic displacement. By turning school routes and water collection points into zones of lethal risk, these actions impose gradual forced displacement, effectively transforming residential neighborhoods into depopulated buffer zones that facilitate military domination.

Within this framework, the systematic targeting of economically and socially vulnerable populations represents a deliberate strategy to consolidate front lines at minimal operational cost. By focusing on families compelled by necessity to remain in high-risk areas and unable to afford displacement, perpetrators achieve localized deterrence while avoiding retaliatory dynamics that might arise from targeting members of armed groups or influential tribal networks. Consequently, these vulnerable populations are left exposed to sustained sniper threats, their daily existence reduced to a continuous mechanism of coercion, and their communities transformed into environments governed by entrenched fear.

These field-based violations are compounded by a media discourse that deliberately obscures accountability by promoting misleading narratives about the political beneficiaries of condemning such crimes. This tactic seeks to detach the criminal act from its material reality, disregarding the fact that the gunfire originates from positions under the group’s control following deliberate identification of the victim. By shifting the discourse from the physical crime scene to speculative political interpretation, this narrative performs a dual function: concealing the direct perpetrator and fostering a climate of legal paralysis that enables ongoing violations and facilitates impunity.

In light of these grave and ongoing abuses, the American Center for Justice stresses that routine international condemnations have failed to deter this pattern of violence and have contributed to the instrumentalization of vulnerable civilians as bargaining tools. ACJ therefore calls on the international community and the UN Special Envoy to adopt concrete and enforceable measures to halt this human attrition. These include lifting the siege on Taiz, ensuring the withdrawal of military positions overlooking civilian neighborhoods, and activating international accountability mechanisms through rigorous criminal documentation that links each violation to its direct perpetrator as well as the chain of command responsible for authorizing and sustaining such acts. These steps are essential to breaking the cycle of impunity and ensuring effective protection for civilian lives.

On the International Day for Mine Awareness, observed today, Saturday, April 4, the American Center for Justice (ACJ) affirms that landmine networks in Yemen constitute a parallel infrastructure of violence, continuing to claim lives and destroy livelihoods independently of the immediate military context that produced them.

The Center recalls its human rights report, “Mines.. Blind Killer,” which documented the systematic and indiscriminate planting of lethal devices across Yemeni territory. It notes that estimates based on field monitoring indicate more than fifteen thousand civilian victims, nearly 80 percent of whom suffer permanent disabilities and lifelong physical deformities as a result of the deliberate use of fragmentation devices and camouflaged explosives specifically designed to mimic the natural environment.

The Center further affirms that the Houthi militia bears full and exclusive responsibility for the planting of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, as well as improvised and disguised explosive devices, in the current conflict. It emphasizes that the group’s failure, as a de facto actor, to accede to international treaties does not absolve it of criminal responsibility. Customary international humanitarian law imposes binding obligations prohibiting the use of indiscriminate weapons and the targeting of civilians, and places responsible leadership under potential prosecution under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The Center underscores that landmines bear no legitimate relation to the principle of military necessity; rather, they operate as inherently indiscriminate and automated means of harm that kill civilians arbitrarily, without any threat posed by the victims. The brutality of this practice was starkly evident during the truce in mid-2022, when the cessation of hostilities prompted thousands of displaced persons to return to their villages and farms, only to encounter minefields laid by the Houthi militia prior to withdrawal. This resulted in severe human and material losses that undermined prospects for restoring normal life.

The Center also draws attention to an additional catastrophe resulting from the continued closure of main roads, particularly the Sana’a–Marib route, which forces travelers to take an alternative desert route through Al-Jawf Governorate. The danger along this compulsory route is exacerbated by climate change and flooding, which displace landmines and conceal them beneath shifting sand dunes, creating mobile and unpredictable death traps that expand the scope of the threat.

Recommendations:

The American Center for Justice also expresses its deep appreciation for the exceptional efforts undertaken by the Saudi “Masam” Project to clear Yemeni land of landmines, and commends the significant sacrifices made by its field teams in dismantling this deadly infrastructure, protecting civilian lives, and restoring safety.

The American Center for Justice calls on all relevant parties to fulfill their obligations through the following measures:

The international community and sponsors of peace processes: Require the handover of minefield maps as a preliminary condition prior to any political or security negotiations, and reject the marginalization of this crime in peace discussions.

The Houthi militia: Immediately cease the planting of all types of landmines, provide accurate maps of contaminated areas, and assume full criminal and material responsibility for ongoing violations against civilians.

The Yemeni government: Intensify efforts to provide sustainable medical and psychological care to victims, and integrate amputees into structured, long-term rehabilitation programs that go beyond temporary response measures.

International human rights organizations: Develop international litigation cases based on the principle of universal jurisdiction to hold accountable the military and political leaders involved in orchestrating this systematic mine-laying campaign.

American Center for Justice (ACJ)
April 4, 2026