A/HRC/45/CRP.7 the Group’s current reporting period).549 In its eighth report, the NCOI indicated that it had monitored and documented a further 2490 incidents, involving over 30 categories of violations.550 The report provided details of the major categories of violations examined, grouped together as: (1) international humanitarian law-related violations (the killing and injuring of civilians, laying of landmines, child recruitment, attacks on cultural and historic objects, attacks on medical staff and health facilities, forced displacement, and civilian sieges and denial of aid); (2) international human rights law-related violations (extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, and the blowing up of houses); (3) Violence against Women; and (4) US Drone related violations.551 The Group of Experts welcomes the progress made by the NCOI, while noting that its operations remain somewhat hampered by non-recognition by the de facto authorities, limited cooperation from the coalition, and security/access issues for its field officers, as well as more recent COVID-related restrictions. The Group reiterates the importance of the NCOI being impartial in assessing the conduct of all parties, and effective in its investigations, with findings backed by a thorough legal analysis grounded in international law. 368. Pursuant to its obligation under art. 5 of Republican Decree No 50 of 2017, the NCOI has referred over 1000 casefiles to the Attorney-General: 416 during the first half of 2019, 552 and a second batch of 601 casefiles transferred to the Attorney-General reported in the eighth report.553 The Group of Experts understands that some 19 cases had progressed to the trial stage at the Specialized Criminal Court in Aden, before court proceedings were suspended in May 2020 due to COVID-19.554 Further information from the Government of Yemen pursuant to the Group’s written request as to the status of the criminal justice investigations and any prosecutions had not been received at the time of preparation of this report. 369. Notwithstanding the NCOI’s activities, the picture emerging from investigations by the Group of Experts into individual cases in 2019-2020 remains of a lack of responsiveness within the Yemeni criminal justice system to pursuing investigations and prosecutions of crimes relating to human rights or humanitarian law violations. Only in a small number of cases investigated this year were there active police investigations leading to referrals to the Attorney-General and/or the relevant Prosecution service. Such cases tended to be limited to ones in which victims’ lawyers were active in agitating the case. With respect to cases in which individuals had been formally charged during the Group’s previous reporting period – for example, the killing of the ICRC official, Hanna Lahoud, or the assassinations allegedly carried out by members of the Security Belt’s Anti-Terrorism cell - the Group understands there have been no further developments. 370. Yemeni prosecutorial authorities have themselves identified technical challenges that they will face in investigating and prosecuting these violations. According to the seventh report of the NCOI, for instance, in meetings concerning the referral of files between the NCOI and Public Prosecutors, the latter identified specific capacity-building needs relating to mechanisms for trying perpetrators of human rights violations and relevant international law.555 The subject of the readiness of the Yemeni justice system to deal with the prosecution of international crimes is a matter the Group of Experts will return to in relation to considering “future prospects” of accountability in Yemen below. 549 Eighth Report: The work of the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights in Yemen (2020) (“Eighth Report of the NCOI”). This report’s publication was delayed due to COVID19, so covers a longer time period than the NCOI’s previous 6-monthly reports. 550 Eighth Report of the NCOI, p. 21. In its Seventh Report, the NCOI reported having completed investigations into 1424 cases: Seventh Report of the NCOI, p. 13. 551 Eighth Report of the NCOI, chapter 6. 552 Seventh Report of the NCOI p. 10. 553 Eighth Report of the NCOI, p. 17. 554 This was reportedly after the death of the head of the Prosecution Service for Aden, Judge Muhammad Ali Saleh on 1 May 2020 from acute pneumonia, who was suspected to have had COVID19. https://twitter.com/almasdaronline/status/1256241344751828992. 555 Seventh Report NCOI, p. 10. 92