RIYADH, 12 October 2021, (TON): Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said “an international consensus on the crisis in Yemen is the most effective way to help the people of the country.”

Speaking in the Swiss city during the 48th session of the Human Rights Council, he also highlighted the importance of Security Council resolutions, support for the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, and all efforts to reach a political solution to the crisis.

The HRC rejected a resolution on the human rights situation in Yemen that would have extended the mandate for the council’s investigations of war crimes in the country.

Al-Wasel said “this was a response to the just and legitimate demands to end the activities of the investigators, known as the Group of Eminent Experts, demands he said were supported by a majority of council member states from various geographical regions.”

The draft resolution was narrowly rejected by a vote of 21 to 18 against, with seven abstentions. The GEE had been tasked with investigating all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights committed by all parties to the conflict since September 2014.