A/HRC/42/CRP.1 soldiers.1045 However, Yemeni law does not criminalize the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 18.1046 International criminal law allows prosecution of those violating these proscriptions for recruitment, conscription and use of children younger than 15.1047 675. On 23 January 2019, Yemen underwent its third Universal Periodic Review (hereinafter “UPR”) before the Human Rights Council. 1048 The Government of Yemen indicated it had endorsed the Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups. The Government also reported that the State had accepted obligations relating to children’s rights and their protection under the strategy to combat child recruitment and to promote their demobilization and rehabilitation. Yemen informed the Human Rights Council during the UPR that one such measure was the signature in December 2018 of the roadmap for the 2014 Action Plan, promoted by the United Nations, for the protection of children in armed conflicts. 1049 Recruitment and Use of Children by Yemeni armed forces and affiliated armed groups 676. In 2015 and 2016, the Southern Resistance recruited dozens of children in Aden. A former child soldier told the Group of Experts that the groups recruited him at the age of 12.1050 The child said his father only allowed him to man a checkpoint, and not to join in the battle. The child stated his “checkpoint was located just behind the front line… the front line was no more than 200 meters away beyond the Aqaba Road where …10 of my friends patrolled. On the front line itself, 200m away, another 10 other children were posted.” 1051 With regard to his role, the child stated, “My role was to search people’s clothes and bags, particularly women. Every day I heard the shooting and felt the explosions but our checkpoint was not targeted directly. My responsibility was to find collaborators and Houthis. On one occasion, I searched a woman and found money and bombs.” 1052 677. The Group of Experts received compelling evidence about the ‘enforced’ and ‘voluntary’ recruitment of at least 27 children as young as 13 years’ old by the Yemeni armed forces as well as by the UAE-backed Security Belt, Giants Brigades, and Shabwah Elite forces, since 2017.1053 Among them, at least 22 children – some as young as 13 years – According to Article 149 of Yemen’s Law No. 45 (2002) on Child Rights, “The State shall abide by the internal law applicable to it in armed conflict that are related to the children and their protection though the following: a. Prohibition of children carrying weapons; b. Protection of children from effects of armed conflict; c. Protection of children that suffer from revenge/vendetta issues; d. (d) not involving children directly in war and, e. not recruiting any person who is not above 18 year-old.” Text available in Arabic at http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/arabic/Yemeni_Laws/Yemeni_Laws29.pdf. 1046 The 1988 Yemeni Military Penal Code, article 21 provides that “An individual subject to the provisions of this law who committed during the war any act that causes harm to individuals and protected properties as per the international agreements to which Yemen is a consignee, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of no longer than 10 years or penalized fittingly with the crime results.” The article then lists the ‘punishable acts’, however it does not include the recruitment and use of children under 15 or 18 year-old. 1047 Though Yemen is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, the Statute defines as a war crime conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities. Article 8(2)(b)(xxvi) and(e)(vii). Special Court for Sierra Leone, Prosecutor v. Samuel Hinga Norman, Dissenting Opinion of Justice Robertson, Case No. SCSL-04-14-AR72 (E), 31 May 2004. See also ICRC Study on customary IHL, rules 136-137. 1048 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24094&LangID=E 1049 The Action Plan signed in 2014 was only activated in 2018, and a road-map for its implementation was agreed and signed only on 18 December 2018. The roadmap lays out measures to ensure release, reintegration and prevention of child recruitment. 1050 Confidential Sources on File. 1051 Confidential Sources on File. 1052 Testimony from a source; identity obscured for protection reasons. 1053 Confidential Sources on File. 1045 162