Fragile political settlements in Yemen have become a cover for whitewashing crimes against children
Aden –(SEYAJ- 14 June 2026: The SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection has warned in a new briefing that Yemen’s fragile political settlements, persisting for more than a decade, have turned into instruments for whitewashing grave violations against children. Militia leaders have exploited these arrangements to secure false political legitimacy or escape accountability through exchange deals, often at the expense of innocent civilians.
The briefing stressed that this approach entrenches impunity, deepens societal divisions, and threatens local, regional, and international peace and security. Incorporating perpetrators of international humanitarian law violations into state institutions without criminal accountability or robust transitional justice mechanisms amounts to structural sabotage of Yemen’s future and a guarantee of continued armed conflict.
SEYAJ called for prohibiting any explicit or implicit immunities for perpetrators of war crimes against children, establishing independent national mechanisms for transitional justice, activating international sanctions, and implementing disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs for child soldiers, recognizing them as victims rather than offenders.
The organization emphasized that any peace that bypasses accountability is a “booby-trapped peace” that reproduces wars under new legitimacies, and that child protection must be the benchmark of international legitimacy and the foundation of sustainable peace.
