Yemen

Advocacy

In the SG’s 2025 annual report on CAAC, the Security Belt Forces have been delisted for the violation of recruitment and use of children for their commitment to the 2014 action plan and the Houthis have been delisted for the violation of attacks on schools and hospitals. These delistings are conditional upon the continued implementation of their respective action plans and road maps and the continued decrease in such violations. The Houthis remain listed for killing and maiming and recruitment and use of children. Save the Children reported that child casualties in Yemen increased by 70 per cent in 2025, with at least 103 children killed and 246 injured, compared with 44 killed and 161 injured in 2024. The increase was largely driven by airstrikes, which killed or injured at least 155 children. In September 2025, at least 103 children were among 427 civilian casualties from Israeli airstrikes, including one incident on 25 September in which airstrikes near a school killed or injured 216 people, including 67 children. The Security Council should:

Urge all parties to coordinate with the UN to fund and promote mine clearance and age-appropriate explosive ordnance risk education, conflict preparedness, and protection for affected communities;
Call on all parties to the conflict to allow the unimpeded access of United Nations personnel to children held in detention facilities, including recruitment centers and military barracks, as part of efforts to verify, release and reintegrate them into their families;
Urge all parties to take immediate steps to end and prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence against children and ensure that survivors have access to timely, comprehensive, gender-sensitive, and age-appropriate response and protection;
Call on Yemen Armed Forces and affiliated armed forces and groups, the Amaliqah Brigades and all groups affiliated with the Presidential Leadership Council to fully and swiftly implement all relevant activities under the Government’s 2014 action plan and 2018 roadmap, including further capacity-building for officers and a complaints mechanisms;
Call on the Houthi’s to fully and swiftly implement the 2022 action plan and handover protocol, in close collaboration with the UN, notably to continue conducting age assessments in recruitment centers and training of officers on child protection and granting unimpeded access for the UN to all places of detention of children;
Call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained personnel from UN, non-governmental and civil society organizations as well as from diplomatic missions, and demand that all parties fully comply with obligations under IHL and IHRL, including allowing and facilitating the immediate, safe, and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to children and other civilians in need.

THE UNITED KINGDOM IS THE SECURITY COUNCIL PENHOLDER ON YEMEN.

This information is based on Watchlist’s Children and Armed Conflict Monthly Update – April 2026.

In May, the SG released his fourth report on the situation of children and armed conflict in Yemen (S/2025/113), covering the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023. During this time, the United Nations verified 5,539 grave violations against 2,422 children (1,997 boys, 425 girls), including 193 children who were victims of multiple violations. The most prevalent violation was the denial of humanitarian access (2,806 incidents), followed by killing and maiming (1,941) and recruitment and use (564). The UN also verified 118 attacks on schools and hospitals, 64 abductions, and 46 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Explosive ordnance caused the majority of child casualties, accounting for 69 percent of children killed or maimed, while the military use of 158 schools and 13 hospitals was also documented. The report notes a significant decline in violations following the 2022 UN-mediated truce and subsequent action plan implementation, as well as an overall decline in the total number of verified grave violations as compared to the previous report which covered a shorter reporting period. However, access restrictions and fear of reprisals continued to limit verification. The Working Group Should:

Strongly condemn all grave violations and abuses that continue to be committed against children in Yemen, and demand that all parties uphold their obligations under IHL and IHRL;
Reiterate calls for safe, timely, and unimpeded access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected populations, including children;
Urge all armed groups to immediately release all children under 18 from their ranks and end and prevent all child recruitment and use; reiterate that children associated with armed forces and groups should be treated primarily as victims, and their reintegration should be prioritized;
Urge the Government of Yemen, the Security Belt Forces, the Amaliqah Brigades and all groups affiliated with the Presidential Leadership Council to fully and swiftly implement all relevant activities under the Government’s 2014 action plan and 2018 roadmap;
Call on the Houthi’s to fully and swiftly implement the 2022 action plan and handover protocol, in close collaboration with the UN, notably to continue conducting age assessments in recruitment centers and training of officers on child protection and granting unimpeded access for the UN to all places of detention of children;
Call on all parties to immediately cease attacks and threats of attack on educational and health facilities and personnel, as well as to refrain from the military use of schools.

This information is based on Watchlist’s Children and Armed Conflict Monthly Update – June 2025.

Publications

UN Action

Year listed: 2011
Action Plans signed: Yemen Armed Forces – recruitment and use of children (May 2014)
Sanctions Committee: 2140 Sanctions Committee (Current Chair: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)
Secretary-General’s reports on CAAC in Yemen: 2021; 2019; 2013
Security Council Working Group conclusions on Yemen: 2020; 2013

Perpetrators listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s annual reports on children and armed conflict

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Al-Houthi/Ansar Allah*	a		a	a	a	a,b,d	a,b,d
Pro-Government militias, including the Salafists and Popular Committees*	a	a	a	a	a	a	a
Breakaway First Armoured Division (FAD)		a
Yemeni armed forces (YAF)~		a	a	a	a
Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula (AQIP)				a	a	a	a
Ansar al-Sharia*			a	a	a	a	a
Government forces, including the Yemeni Armed Forces, the First Armoured Division, the Military Police, the special security forces and Republican Guards ~ *			a	a	a	a	a
Coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia**							b,d

a: Parties that recruit and use children
b: Parties that kill and maim children
c: Parties that commit rape and other forms of sexual violence against children

d: Parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals
e: Parties that engage in abduction of children
f: Parties that deny humanitarian access to children

~ This party has concluded an action plan with the United Nations in line with Security Council resolutions 1539 (2004) and 1612 (2005).
* This party has been in the annexes for at least five years and is therefore considered a persistent perpetrator.
**First listed as the Saudi Arabia-led coalition for killing and maiming and attacks on schools and hospitals in the 2016 report but removed on 24 June 2016 per addendum A/70/836/ADD.1-S/2016/360/ADD.1