A/HRC/45/57 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 42/31, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide substantive capacity-building and technical assistance to the Government of Yemen and technical support to the National Commission of Inquiry to ensure that the National Commission continued to investigate allegations of violations and abuses committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen, and in line with international standards. In that resolution, the Council also requested the High Commissioner to present a written report on the implementation of technical assistance to the Council at its forty-fifth session. 2. The present report provides details of the mandate of the National Commission of Inquiry to investigate allegations of violations and abuses committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen, which started its work in October 2015. The report also provides an overview of the technical assistance and capacity-building that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provided to the National Commission between March 2016 and August 2020.1 Activities to build the capacity of the National Commission that had been planned to be implemented in person between April and August 2020 had to be postponed owing to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Yemen and the restrictions imposed in order to prevent the spread of the virus. The present report focuses on the mandate of the National Commission on the basis of international standards pertaining to commissions of inquiry.2 3. The present report should be read in conjunction with the previous reports of the High Commissioner to the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in Yemen (A/HRC/33/38, A/HRC/36/33, A/HRC/39/43 and A/HRC/42/33), which included information on technical assistance and capacity-building provided by OHCHR to the National Commission. II. National Commission of Inquiry to investigate allegations of violations and abuses committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen A. Mandate 4. The National Commission was established under Presidential Decree No. 140 of 2012, pursuant to which it is mandated to investigate all alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that have taken place since 2011, to investigate individual and group complaints received and to identify the perpetrators. It is also empowered to subpoena any person to hear their testimony and to obtain relevant documents and other evidence (art. 3). Revisions to its mandate were introduced under Presidential Decrees No. 13 of 2015, Nos. 66 and 97 of 2016, No. 50 of 2017 and No. 30 of 2019. 5. The most recent Presidential Decree, No. 30 of 2019, issued on 22 August 2019, introduced amendments concerning the appointment of commissioners to the National Commission. It increased the number of female commissioners from three to four, and extended the term of the mandate to two years from the date of the issuance of the Decree, with a possibility of renewal by Presidential Decree. In addition, it provided that commissioners should not hold another position, whether in the public or the private sector. 1 2 2 Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 33/16. See the updated set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity (E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1) and OHCHR, Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-finding Missions on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Guidance and Practice (New York and Geneva, 2015).