A/HRC/42/CRP.1 38. The Government of Yemen and officials from the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces supporting the Government of Yemen (the “coalition”)7 met with the Group of Experts in March 2018, and with members of the secretariat in Riyadh in July 2018. The Government of Yemen and the coalition further submitted a joint written response to the Group of Experts in August 2018, which arrived after the report of the Group of Experts had been sent for publication. These responses were taken into account in the present report and were used to prepare further questions to the parties sent in April 2019. Representatives from the de facto authorities met with the Group of Experts and its secretariat in Sana’a in March 2018 during which some of the issues raised in writing were discussed, however they did not respond in writing to the April 2018 list of issues. 39. In 2019, the Group of Experts sent multiple letters to the parties to the conflict again requesting: access to Yemen; meetings to discuss the issues detailed in the letters; and written responses to issues that included further follow-up from the August 2018 joint response of the Government of Yemen and coalition. The coalition and Government of Yemen did not respond to the requests in writing, and clearly expressed their lack of willingness to meet or cooperate with the Group, including by failing to respond to the multiple requests for access to Yemen. The de facto authorities responded in late April 2019 that the Group of Experts was authorised to visit Sana’a to conduct its investigations and sent further responses to the list of issues sent by the Group of Experts on 31 May, 10 July, and 29 July 2019 (see annexed correspondence). 4. Methodological considerations and challenges surrounding vulnerable persons and sensitive cases 40. The challenges and lack of safe spaces to interview witnesses and investigate alleged violations in Yemen have had a particular impact on investigating cases affecting the most vulnerable and marginalized people, particularly in cases of sexual and gender-based violence and violations against children. Both physical spaces and electronic privacy concerns severely limited the ability of people to speak freely. Risk of reprisal, concerns related to ‘honour’, psychosocial dependency, exploitation, isolation and marginalization, together with the fact that the majority of survivors remain in areas of conflict under fear and threat from perpetrators, posed serious challenges to many of the Group’s investigations. The violations verified in this report are indicators that there may be more gender-based and other violence against vulnerable persons by parties to the conflict requiring further investigation. 5. OHCHR Human Rights Monitoring 41. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued three reports on the situation of human rights in Yemen during the period covered by the mandate of the Group of Experts (“OHCHR Reports”).8 The information contained in all three reports was based upon human rights monitoring conducted by the OHCHR Yemen country office. 42. The 2015 High Commissioner’s Report (A/HRC/30/31), the 2016 High Commissioner’s Report (A/HRC/33/38) and the 2017 High Commissioner’s Report (A/HRC/36/33), the last of which covers the entire period September 2014 – June 2017, follow the same standard of proof as that employed by the Group of Experts, i.e. ‘reasonable grounds to believe’. The reports note that OHCHR draws conclusions only when this standard is met. The Group of Experts conducted an independent review of the incidents noted in the reports. 7 At the time of its formation in March 2015, the coalition included Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Senegal, the Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar left the coalition in June 2017; Morocco reportedly left in February 2019. 8 See A/HRC/36/33 (2017), A/HRC/33/38 (2016), and A/HRC/30/31 (2015). 11