U.N. Draft Blacklist of Child Killers Includes Saudi Arabia
The United Nations has placed Saudi Arabia on a draft blacklist of countries that kill and maim children in war, a contentious decision that, if finalized, could enrage one of the organization’s most generous donors.
A draft of the annual list, seen Wednesday by The New York Times, includes the Saudi-led coalition of Arab countries that has bombed Yemen for more than two years in a war to rout Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control much of the country, including the capital, Sana.
The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, also are on the blacklist.
Subject to final revisions, the blacklist is expected to be made public in the coming days. United Nations officials declined to comment on the draft, which was first reported by Reuters.
Essentially a naming-and-shaming mechanism, the blacklist is one of the most politically sensitive documents published by the United Nations. It lumps government armies of some countries like Syria and Sudan together with extremist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State.
The United Nations describes it as a “list of parties that recruit or use children, kill or maim children, commit rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, or engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals, or abduct children in situations of armed conflict.”
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It was compiled by Virginia Gamba, the secretary general’s special representative on children and armed conflict. The final version is appended as an annex to an annual report submitted to the United Nations Security Council.
The Saudis strongly protested last year when the secretary general at the time, Ban Ki-moon, placed their coalition on the blacklist because of the bombings in Yemen, which have killed hundreds of children and hit targets that included hospitals and schools.
Mr. Ban then promptly removed the coalition from the list and suggested that the Saudis had threatened to withhold United Nations funding if he had refused.
The Saudis, who have donated hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the United Nations, including for the humanitarian crisis caused by the Yemen war, denied exerting pressure on Mr. Ban.
This year, Mr. Ban’s successor, António Guterres, delayed publication of the 2017 report and blacklist for months.
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In what appeared to be a concession to Saudi Arabia, the draft blacklist distinguishes, for the first time, parties that have taken steps “aimed at improving the protection of children” from those that have not.
The Saudi coalition is listed in the “improving” category, while the Houthis are listed among those that have made no improvements to protect children.
Whether such a distinction will mollify Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners remains unclear.
According to a draft of the 2017 report — which was leaked a few months ago and is used as the basis to compile the blacklist — the Saudi coalition was responsible for 683 child casualties in Yemen in 2016, while the Houthis and their allies were responsible for 414.
Saudi diplomatic officials at the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment, but the Saudi ambassador, Abdallah Y. al-Mouallimi, has said previously that inclusion on the blacklist is unacceptable.
In recent weeks, Mr. Mouallimi has helped lead an intensive publicity campaign to highlight Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian efforts in Yemen and elsewhere.
Mr. Mouallimi also wrote an Op-Ed article, published Wednesday in the international edition of The New York Times, blaming what he described as stubborn defiance by the Houthis for prolonging the conflict with their “unlawful hold on power.”
Advocacy groups for children, which have strongly protested the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen, were appalled last year when Mr. Ban removed the Saudi-led coalition from the blacklist. They welcomed word that the coalition appeared to have been listed again.
“Naming the coalition as responsible in the secretary-general’s annual report is hopefully the first step in holding it accountable and stopping these atrocities,” Eva Smets, executive director of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, said in a statement.
“The leaked documents also indicate the secretary-general believes the Saudi-led coalition has taken positive measures,” Ms. Smets said, “but we continue to receive disturbing reports of children dying from preventable diseases and the coalition’s bombs.”
