International Humanitarian Effort and the Yemen Crisis

International Humanitarian Effort and the Yemen Crisis
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International Humanitarian Effort and the Yemen Crisis
The international community plays a major role in promoting peace and protecting basic human rights across the world. According to Art and Jervis (2017), through humanitarian intervention, the international community has been able to protect people from genocide, war crimes and other atrocities against humanity. International crises are not in shortage, and the international community has to make an effort to resolve any crisis while minimizing the number of casualties involved during the resolution. As such, several elements are essential in ensuring a successful international humanitarian effort as described in this text. These elements can also be used to improve the response to the Yemen crisis to ensure that the situation is brought to an end sooner than later.
First, a successful international humanitarian effort should deploy enough military and diplomatic resources to ensure that even when the situation worsens, the international community’s first step will not be to retreat (Art & Jervis, 2017). The international community has made notable efforts in this front in response to the Yemeni crisis. A Saudi-led coalition, comprising mostly of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia was formed to promote peace in Yemen, and consequently, the Saudi-led coalition has the backing of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) (Nasser, 2018). With this kind of backing and support, the peacekeeping mission in Yemen is unlikely to fail. However, the presence of these international allies also presents a problem to the international humanitarian efforts. As noted by Nasser (2018), the U.S. has been on the frontline in providing military resources to the Saudi coalition, especially in derailing any efforts made by Houthis to acquire firearms. To prevent any arms from getting into Yemen, the U.S. has been blocking vessels coming to Yemen. However, such a move has negative consequences that need to be addressed by the international community. For instance, when the U.S. Navy blocked vessels in order to search them for arms, there was a massive food shortage in the country as a result (Nasser, 2018). Without a proper system to differentiate humanitarian vessels with other vessels, there is a high chance that a similar situation will present itself. The international community should instead establish a better way of identifying and differentiating ships and other carriers delivering humanitarian aid. For instance, they can ensure that they have a unique identifier that is only known to them. The identifier can also be subtle such that it is inconspicuous unless one is looking for it, to avoid imitation by the rebels.
Second, a successful humanitarian effort requires the support of local, regional and international players (Art & Jervis, 2017). The players must work in unity to avoid creating a weak link that can be manipulated by instigators of war. This implies that all the participants should avoid working independently as they can send the wrong message. The international community has fared well in this front in response to the Yemeni crisis. The regional players have...