GENEVA-SABA
Yemeni political activist Wesam Basindowah has called upon the UN Human Rights Council to press the Houthis into halting their atrocities against civilians in Yemen.

Addressing a seminar on the sideline of the UNHRC's 41st session in Geneva, she said the continued conflict and the expansion of militias poses a real threat to pace and global security.

She cited the systematic Houthi abuses against people in the militia's areas of control since they seized the capital Sana'a in September 2014.

She said that the Iran-backed militia cracks down on human rights advocates and round them up to jails and torture them which forced many to flee or to keep their mouths shut.

As one aspect of Houthi abuses, she cited the large recruitment of child soldiers against some payments in exploitation of the desperate living conditions of many families. "Yemen had in the past signed the international conventions regarding the ban of child soldier recruitments and child labor but since the Houthi coup the country has been going through a massive backslide in human rights," she said.