A/HRC/27/44 B. Extrajudicial killings 24. In December 2013, in south Yemen, the thirty-third brigade of the Yemeni Armed Forces mounted a military operation against different targets in Al Dhale’a Governorate. A major incident occurred on 27 December 2013, when the brigade carried out a strike on the funeral procession of an alleged member of the southern separatist movement Al Hirak in the city of Sanah. The attack resulted in 21 civilians killed, including four children, and approximately 30 injured. 25. On 28 December 2013, President Hadi set up an investigation commission, composed of security and military officials, to investigate the events in Al Dhale’a and to report to the Supreme Security Council. On 29 December 2013, the commission was deployed to the incident’s location. At the time of reporting, the commission had not made any of its findings public. 26. On 16 January 2014, indiscriminate attacks and shelling by government forces against civilian targets resumed in many parts of Al Dhale’a, including Al Dhale’a city, Al Houd, Al Kabar, Al Jaleelah and Al Wa’erah. The operation resulted in 10 civilians killed, including two children, and 20 civilians injured. According to the information available, shelling began when armed men affiliated with Al Hirak attacked a checkpoint manned by the thirty-third brigade and crossfire between the two groups led to a number of casualties. 27. According to local NGOs, between December 2013 and February 2014, at least 43 individuals were killed, including eight children, and 70 civilians were injured as part of the military operations in Al Dhale’a. At the time of reporting, no report from the investigation commission had been issued and no individuals connected to the incidents had been prosecuted. C. Death penalty 28. Yemen has not ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. National legislation in Yemen imposes death penalty sentences for a very wide range of offences,7 including for financial crimes, blasphemy, offences committed under Hodoud (religiously ordained crimes) and Qisas (death in retribution), drug-related offences as well as crimes that appear to have a political dimension. The Penal Law maintains death by stoning for extramarital heterosexual and homosexual intercourse.8 The Law also prescribes death by stoning for extramarital heterosexual and consensual adult homosexual conduct. 29. Yemen has not established a moratorium on the use of the death penalty and it continues to impose capital punishment. According to official figures provided by the General Prosecutor’s Office, between 1 July 2013 and April 2014, authorities executed 15 adults. At the time of writing the present report, there were 52 persons on death row believed to have been under 18 years of age when they committed offences. UNICEF submitted the list of 52 death row prisoners to the Office of the President of Yemen with a 7 8 8 A total of 315 types of offence are punishable by the death penalty. In Yemen the death penalty is provided for in four main laws: the 1994 Penal Law, the 1998 Law on combating kidnappings, the 1998 military Penal Code; and the 1993 Law on combating trafficking and illicit use of drugs and psychotropic substances. The draft Law on combating human trafficking proposes to introduce a new sentence punishable by death. In accordance with international human rights jurisprudence, these crimes do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” and must not be punishable by death (A/HRC/27/23, paras. 28–39).