In a message addressed earlier today to the President of the United Nations Security Council, the Vienna-based International Progress Organization, an NGO in consultative status with the United Nations, strongly condemned the land, air and sea blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia and her military allies on Yemen. As a result of the ongoing siege, 7 million people are on the brink of famine and 900,000 are stricken by cholera. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, around one million children are at the risk of a diphtheria epidemic because vaccines cannot be brought into the country. Allowing limited humanitarian imports through the southern port of Aden is not adequate as long all as the northern port of Hodeidah and other access points are blocked, the message of the I.P.O. stated. Referring to a joint statement by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, and the Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP), David Beasley, the I.P.O. urged the world organization to take measures, under the Charter's provisions of collective security, to oblige the military coalition to permit entry of lifesaving supplies to Yemen without further delay.

In connection with the repeated bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure, a systematic policy of deprivation of the civilian population of the basic necessities of life -- including food, energy, and access to clean drinking water -- constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law and a crime against humanity as defined under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The punitive measures are also a clear-cut breach of Security Council resolution 2216 (2015), adopted on 14 April 2015 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Paragraph 9 of the resolution obliges all parties to the conflict "to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as rapid, safe and unhindered access for humanitarian actors to reach people in need of humanitarian assistance."

The International Progress Organization called upon the member states of the United Nations Security Council to take immediate action, on the basis of the legally binding Council resolution 2216 (2015), to bring about an end to the brutal siege imposed on the people of Yemen, which amounts to a collective punishment of colossal proportions. All of the country's ports must be opened without delay.

Recalling its earlier appeal of 5 April 2015, the International Progress Organization stated that what has now become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world must not be met with silence by the international community. The legitimacy of the United Nations Organization is at stake unless it takes immediate action to save the people of Yemen, the message to the Security Council concluded.

• War in Yemen: Blockade of emergency relief supplies a war crime -- I.P.O. News Release, 5 April 2015

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