Executive Summary

For decades, access to education has remained a dream for millions of Yemenis. Across the country, Yemeni families have struggled to help their children achieve this dream, and to enjoy their basic right to an education. In tandem, new and escalating armed conflicts have prevented Yemenis from achieving their aspirations to an education. As the conflict nears its sixth year, the future of education in the country looks ever more tragic. Day by day, children fall prey to recruitment by the warring parties and are thrown into the frontlines of the war. Dozens of children are killed and maimed, and become fuel for a war that has devoured their future and that of Yemen.

Since the  armed conflict began in 2014, when the Ansar Allah (Houthi) armed group took over Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, by force, and since that conflict escalated in 2015 with the intervention of the Saudi/UAE-led coalition on behalf of the internationally-recognized government, schools and educational facilities have witnessed various forms of attack and abuse by the warring parties.  The Ansar Allah (Houthi) armed group, forces and armed groups loyal to the internationally-recognized government of President Hadi including Islah-affiliated armed groups, the Saudi-UAE led coalition, and UAE-backed armed groups, including Southern Transitional Council forces, have all damaged, destroyed, used, occupied, or attacked schools.

The warring parties have also repeatedly used and occupied  schools  for military purposes, gravely endangering schools by further exposing  them to attacks by opposing parties.

Attacks on and impacting schools have caused different degrees of damage to school buildings. Airstrikes and shelling have caused significant damage. Attacks have also killed and wounded students and teachers and  had a  psychological impact on students. Many schools stopped functioning or became dangerous due to remaining ordnance, including missiles and explosive materials, in or near school grounds, or due to the fact that the facility is located near or in the midst of clashes, increasing the potential reoccurrence of another attack, and the fear associated with it. The warring parties have also repeatedly used and occupied  schools  for military purposes, gravely endangering schools by further exposing  them to attacks by opposing parties. In addition, warring parties have, for example, planted landmines in or near schools and entered schools by force. In these school attacks, the warring parties appear to have repeatedly committed serious violations  of international humanitarian law and grave human rights abuses. To date, accountability has been absent.

This report, produced by Mwatana for Human Rights (Mwatana), examines attacks on and impacting schools and education facilities between March 2015 and December 2019 by the warring parties in Yemen. The report does not cover many other attacks and abuses that have killed, wounded and otherwise harmed school-age children during the conflict, which have ranged from airstrikes that have killed or wounded dozens of young children, to recruitment and use of school-age children across Yemen.[1]

The report is based off more than 600 interviews with witnesses, victims’ families, parents and education workers conducted in 19 of Yemen’s 22 governorates.

Between March 2015 and December 2019, Mwatana documented more than 380 incidents of attacks on and impacting schools and educational facilities in Yemen. The documented incidents can be put in four main categories of attack. First, Saudi/UAE-led coalition airstrikes impacting educational facilities—Mwatana documented 153 coalition airstrikes on or impacting schools between 2015 and 2019 in 16 Yemeni governorates. Second, attacks impacting schools during ground fighting—Mwatana documented 36 such attacks, with Ansar Allah responsible for 22, Hadi government forces responsible for 8, and Ansar Allah and Hadi government forces both responsible in the remaining 6. Third, military use and occupation of schools—Mwatana documented 171 instances of military use and occupation of schools, with Ansar Allah responsible for 131 of these incidents, forces loyal to President Hadi and affiliated Popular Resistance forces responsible for 30, UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council forces responsible for 8, and  Ansar Al-Sharia responsible for one. In addition to these three primary patterns, Mwatana documented 20 incidents of other forms of abuse impacting schools, examples of which are included in the report’s final section.

Based on the documented cases, Saada was the governorate most affected by school attacks, with 155 documented incidents, including 87 Saudi/UAE-led coalition airstrikes and 58 cases of occupation and military use of schools by Ansar Allah. Taiz governorate was also significantly affected, with 53 of the documented attacks occurring in Taiz.

The patterns and cases included in the report provide insight into the most distinctive patterns of attacks affecting schools and educational facilities during the years of war in Yemen. The facts and cases included are not exhaustive. The case studies provide a small window into the tragic effects these attacks have had on the education process, and the implications this holds for children in Yemen, and the country’s future. Mwatana continues to document attacks on Yemen’s schools.
Recommendations

To Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Other Saudi/UAE-led Coalition Members

1. Fully comply with the principles and provisions of international humanitarian law, including in the planning and implementation of airstrikes, in particular: taking special care to avoid damage to schools and educational facilities; doing everything feasible to verify that a target is a military objective, and, where there is doubt, presuming the person or object is civilian; ceasing indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks; and taking all feasible precautions to minimize the harm to civilians and civilian objects, including by issuing effective advance warnings.
2. Conduct credible, transparent and impartial investigations into all coalition attacks that are credibly alleged to have violated international humanitarian law, including those featured in this report, publicly declare the results of those investigations, and appropriately prosecute military personnel, including as a matter of command responsibility, suspected to be responsible for international crimes.
3. Publicly release information regarding the member states of the coalition that participated in attacks that resulted in civilian deaths or injuries, as well as information regarding the civilian casualties and the intended military targets of these attacks.
4. Provide necessary, adequate and transparent support to rebuild schools damaged and destroyed in coalition attacks and support efforts to ensure redress and condolence payments to civilian victims and their families, including providing redress and condolence payments to those impacted by coalition attacks, and ensuring such processes are transparent, with sufficient information publicly released for independent monitoring.
5. Accept and cooperate fully with investigations by international bodies, like the UN Human Rights Council Group of Eminent Experts, including granting unimpeded access to international investigators.
6. Ratify the Arms Trade Treaty without delay.
7. Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) without delay.

To the Internationally-Recognized Government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi

1. Condition consent for the coalition’s ongoing operations in Yemen on their implementation of the aforementioned actions and recommendations.
2. Support the establishment of a mechanism to rebuild schools damaged and destroyed during the armed conflict across Yemen, support efforts to ensure redress and condolence payments to civilians, including providing redress and condolence payments to those impacted by government attacks, and ensure such processes are transparent, with sufficient information publicly released for independent monitoring.
3. Cease use of schools for military purposes, cease placing military targets near schools, end practices that endanger students, teachers, and educational facilities, and commit to applying and implementing the Safe Schools Declaration.
4. Accept and cooperate fully with investigations by international bodies, like the UN Human Rights Council Group of Eminent Experts, including granting unimpeded access to international investigators.
5. Ratify the Arms Trade Treaty without delay.
6. Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) without delay.

To Ansar Allah

1. Fully comply with the principles and provisions of international humanitarian law, including in the planning and implementation of attacks, in particular: taking special care to avoid damage to schools and educational facilities; doing everything feasible to verify that a target is a military objective, and, where there is doubt, presuming the person or object is civilian; ceasing indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks; and taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects, including by issuing effective advance warnings.
2. Cease use of schools for military purposes, cease placing military targets near schools, and end practices that endanger students, teachers, and educational facilities, and publicly commit to abiding by the principles in the Safe Schools Declaration.
3. Support efforts to ensure accountability for perpetrators of alleged war crimes and efforts to ensure redress and condolence payments to civilians, including cooperating with investigations into alleged violations and providing redress and condolence payments to civilians impacted by Ansar Allah attacks.
4. Accept and cooperate fully with investigations by international bodies, like the UN Human Rights Council Group of Eminent Experts, including granting unimpeded access to international investigators.

To the UAE-Backed Southern Transitional Council

1. Fully comply with the principles and provisions of international humanitarian law, including in the planning and implementation of attacks, in particular: taking special care to avoid damage to schools and educational facilities; doing everything feasible to verify that a target is a military objective, and, where there is doubt, presuming the person or object is civilian; ceasing indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks; and taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects, including by issuing effective advance warnings.
2. Cease use of schools for military purposes, cease placing military targets near schools, end practices that endanger students, teachers, and educational facilities, and publicly commit to abiding by the principles in the Safe Schools Declaration.
3. Support efforts to ensure accountability for perpetrators of alleged war crimes and efforts to ensure redress and condolence payments to civilians, including cooperating with investigations into alleged violations and providing redress and condolence payments to civilians impacted by Southern Transitional Council attacks.

To the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada and Other States Supplying Weapons to the Saudi/UAE-led Coalition  

1. Immediately cease any sale or transfer of weapons to members of the Saudi/UAE-led coalition contingent upon full respect for international humanitarian and human rights law in coalition operations in Yemen, and comprehensive efforts toward effective accountability and redress for all alleged crimes and violations committed throughout the conflict.

To Iran

1. Immediately cease any sale or transfer of weapons to Ansar Allah.

To the United Nations Human Rights Council

1. Renew and strengthen the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts to include collecting and preserving evidence and support the Group’s efforts to continue investigating violations and abuses committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen, including calling on the warring parties to adhere to the Group’s recommendations.

To the United Nations Security Council

1. Clearly state that accountability for perpetrators of war crimes and redress to victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law and grave human rights abuses are a minimum part of any transitional process in Yemen.
2. Demand that warring parties cooperate fully with the UN Human Rights Council Group of Eminent Experts and support efforts to renew and strengthen the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts.
3. Refer the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

To the United Nations Security-General

1. Prepare detailed reports on the violations committed by the warring parties, list them impartially in the annual List of Shame, and ensure that action plans agreed to for the purpose of potentially de-listing include measures such as investigating violations, providing redress to those affected, and guaranteeing nonrecurrence.
2. In line with UN-verified information on continuing violations against children by the Saudi/UAE-led coalition, re-list the Saudi/UAE-led coalition on the List of Shame.

[1] For more information about patterns of violation and abuses in Yemen, including those impacting school-age children, see Mwatana for Human Rights 2018 annual report, Withering Life: Human Rights Situation in Yemen 2018, available at: https://mwatana.org/en/withering-life/.

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