(HRW) – As it turns out, blackmail is good strategy for governments that want to get away with killing children in conflict. This week, Saudi Arabia and its allies reportedly threatened to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to the United Nations, unless UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon removed the Saudi-led coalition from his annual “list of shame” for violations against children in Yemen. Their strategy worked. Less than a week after Ban issued the list, he announced that he was removing the Saudi-led coalition, “pending review.”
