Jocelyn Rossell
U.N. Systems- Thompson
March 3, 2016
Paper 1- Humanitarian Crisis
Yemen- UN Involvement during Civil War
Currently, the United Nations (UN) and other world peace and aid partners are responding to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Both a humanitarian aid plan and a peacekeeping and cease-fire mission are being drafted, enacted, and carried out by different bodies and actors of the UN. The humanitarian emergency that is going on in this Middle Eastern country is one of the current four ‘L3’ emergencies, which makes it one of the most severe and large-scale global crises (UNOCHA, 2016). In March of 2015, armed conflict broke out and has been rapidly spreading across the entire country of Yemen, leaving the country and its population in turmoil. The UN has taken the initiative to play the role of savior and peacekeeper within the country.
Since the occupation of the south by the north in the 1994 civil war, the country has not seen the same peace it did at one point in its history. A democratic election was successful in 1999, up until the break of the Yemeni Revolution in 2011. Currently, Saudi Arabia has a coalition that is trying to suppress the rebelling Houthis, a group from the northwest of Yemen that has taken over large parts of the country. The Houthis have managed to exile President Hadi and are reportedly backed by Iran and allied with former President Saleh. (Yemen, NYT, 2016) This conflict has killed nearly 6,000 and has left thousands more injured and displaced, and is quickly spreading crises across the country. After six months of conflict and relentless violence, the UN stepped into assist in Yemen through different actors within the UN.
The UNOCHA, or United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has been involved in Yemen to support a humanitarian response plan. The OCHA is an office under the UN principal organ of the Secretariat, currently Ban Ki-moon, which involves itself with administrative operations with a staff whom act as “international civil servants” (Lecture, Structure of UN). The goal of this office, and the UN as an actor in this crisis, is do develop a humanitarian response plan that follows the purpose of the UN as described by the Charter. The United Nations acts to achieve international communication over humanitarian problems and strives to promote human rights. The current OCHA office in Yemen is focused on the operation of creating an international humanitarian community that is being pushed back upon by the restrictions on commercial imports on the already poorest country in the Middle East (UNOCHA, 2016). As of February 2016, the funding requirement for humanitarian efforts in Yemen, which would include food, water sources, some basic needs for shelter, and health aid, is 1.80 billion US dollars. This budget, launched under the title 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, combines over 100 aid organizations that are responsible for nearly 1.2 million people. Eighty percent of these people require immediate and urgent assistance; “there are over 14 million people who are food insecure. And of those 7.6 million people who are severely food insecure.” (Cihan, 2016). The UN and OCHA, along with the OCHA office in Yemen has four strategic objective- save lives, protect civilians across all sectors, promote equitable access for women and men, and support resilience and sustainable recovery (Reliefweb, 2016). The response strategy outlines the aim to reach 13.6 million people who have the chance and range to be saved; if this is successful in reaching sixty-five to eighty-five percent in need, the UN will consider the OCHA mission and outline successful for 2016.
However, these efforts will most likely be even more successful with the implementation of a peacekeeping and/or cease-fire operation that is enacted by the UN. The United Nations is not designed to, nor does it even have the power to, engage in civil, armed, or unengaged conflict. When acting upon peace and security, the UN and the Security Council aims to take approaches including international law, preventative settlements, collective enforcement, peacekeeping and arms control & nonproliferation (Lecture, 2.1). The situation in Yemen is still considered armed conflict since there are continuous acts of violence and aggression across the country; therefore the UN has engaged and continues to engage in a number of peacekeeping talks and arms control efforts to help to create a peaceful environment in Yemen.
The first peace talks were held in Switzerland in December of 2015 and after days of negotiation, there was no clear sign of a resolution. The ultimate goal of the UN, who seemed hopeful going into the talks, was to end the nine-month war that had killed nearly 6,000 people at the time. The UN agreed to the peace talks only after a cease-fire agreement and with international pressure for many other organizations, including many Non-governmental Organizations (NGO’s). As peace talks began however, there were only more acts of aggression and fighting from both sides, which lead to an unsuccessful series of negotiations. (Fahim, NYT, 2015)
While efforts may have been unsuccessful at the surface, the UN is still pushing for continued peace talks and is urging for both parties to take immediate, urgent steps to a ceasefire. The Security Council, the main UN organ responsible for security issues and delivering binding resolutions, regulated that all sides should “comply with international humanitarian law, including to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects” (UN News Centre, 2016). The Security Council is hoping that the talks from December will be taken into consideration and that plans for new talks will be made soon. As of just two weeks ago, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said that the crisis in Yemen was a "very severe crisis—a catastrophe—and it’s been overlooked because of what is happening elsewhere in the Middle East” (Cihan, 2016).
While the fighting and conflict is continuing and the humanitarian numbers aren’t decreasing, it would be unfair to say that the United Nations, through their efforts with OCHA and the Security Council, are failing. For a conflict that has been going on for less than a year, the UN has taken necessary measures to try and ensure peace, humanitarian efforts, and establishment of civilian safety to the best of their abilities. In both the peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts, the actors are seeing pushback from both parties engaged in the conflict, and the actual country of Yemen. Due to it being the poorest country in the Middle East, the import regulations and aid efforts are being capped and are receiving pushback from rebels within the government. Because of the conflict, thousands are displaced and living in places that are well below even the most impoverished areas, which makes them in even more need for humanitarian efforts. These areas are typically the hardest for aid programs to reach and make the efforts seem less successful than they truly are. (WFP, Yemen, 2016)
When analyzing the UN efforts from a structural standpoint, the Security Council, General Assembly, OCHA, with the support of other governing bodies and offices are doing what they have the right to do. Within nine months OCHA has devised a two year, 1.8 billion dollar humanitarian crisis and aid plan that is already being acted upon by over one hundred aid organizations. The Security Council has intervened in holding peace talks, organizing the country and their Envoy, and has declared Yemen as an L3 issue. While as of now there is no clear end to a nine-month civil war, the political, economic, humanitarian, and peacekeeping efforts being established and executed by the United Nations leaves room for a hopefully successful and soon ending.
Reference:
Crisis in Yemen Is a Very Severe Crisis; UN Humanitarian Coordinator. (2016, February 20). Cihan News Agency (CNA). Retrieved March 1, 2016, from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-443757158.html?refid=easy_hf
Fahim, K., & Al-Batati, S. (2015, December 20). Yemen Peace Talks End With No End to Conflict. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/world/middleeast/yemen-peace-talks-end-with-no-end-to-conflict.html?_r=0
Security Council calls on all parties to Yemen conflict to take urgent steps towards resuming ceasefire. (2016, February 18). Un News Centre. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53270#.VteZODZndSU
World Food Programme- Yemen. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2016, from https://www.wfp.org/countries/yemen/overview
Yemen. (n.d.). The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2016, from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/yemen/index.html
Yemen, The United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Efforts. (2016, January). Reliefweb. Retrieved February 29, 2016, from http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.pdf
Yemen- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Efforts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2016, from http://www.unocha.org/yemen