A/HRC/42/CRP.1 conflict.1108 In addition to international humanitarian law provisions protecting health care services, Article 24 of the CRC imposes a strong duty of action by States parties to ensure that health and other relevant services are available and accessible to all children, with special attention to under-served areas and populations.1109 706. Yemen has seen the destruction or closure of health facilities as a result of: attacks, military use, violence, and insecurity; the lack of financial means to operate the facilities; scarcity of supplies and disruption of supply chains; and staff shortages, particularly of specialized staff, due to the failure to pay health workers and due to the emigration of trained medical personnel. Military use of medical facilities 707. Medical facilities, including medical units and transports, to the extent feasible, should not be used to shield military objectives from attacks or be used outside their humanitarian function. 1110 The Group of Experts has documented first-hand the military use of medical facilities since the beginning of the conflict, further undermining the availability of health care services. This has often resulted in attacks by opposing parties. For examples, refer to Chapters on the battles of Aden and al-Hudaydah in this report. Attacks affecting medical facilities 708. Under the rules of international humanitarian law, medical personnel, facilities and infrastructure which have been assigned to carry out activities of an exclusively medical nature enjoy special protection. This means that, even where they may constitute a military objective at a particular point in time (for example due to military use by a party to the conflict), an attack against them will only be lawful after due warning has been given, leaving, in principle, a time-period to redress the situation and after the said warning has remained unheeded. 709. The Group of Experts found that access to healthcare in Yemen continues to diminish as parties have damaged and destroyed health facilities. According to the UN Secretary-General, 119 attacks against medical facilities and personnel were carried out between 2015 and 2018.1111 The Group of Experts also documented the military use of medical facilities, which has often led to attacks by other parties. In its previous report, the Group reported on several relevant strikes, including coalition strikes carried out in 2015 and 2016 against Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) facilities in Sa’dah and Hajjah governorates.1112 More recently, the Group investigated the 11 June 2018 coalition airstrike on the MSF Cholera Treatment Centre (CTC) in Abs district, Hajjah governorate. The facility hadn’t yet been opened as it was a newly constructed CTC to be opened as soon as the ‘cholera season’ started. The facility would have accommodated approximately 50-60 beds.1113 1108 Based upon Article 12 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereinafter ICESCR), Yemen has recognized ‘the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’. See also, JA Robinson, The right of child victims of armed conflict to reintegration and recovery, 2012, http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1727-37812012000100003. 1109 CRC, Article 24; General Comment No. 15 (CRC/C/GC/15) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, 17 April 2013, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/15. 1110 ICRC Customary ICHL Study, rule 22-24 and 28. 1111 United Nations, Reports of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, 20 April 2016, A/70/836-S/2016/360, para 170; 20 August 2017, A/72/361–S/2017/821, para 193; 16 May 2018, A/72/865-S/2018/465, para 208-209; and 3 June 2019, S/2019/453, para 43. 1112 A/HRC/39/43, para 36. 1113 In a recent report, MSF indicated that it had increased the capacity of Abs Hospital to 200 beds. MSF, 24 April 2019, Complicated Delivery: The Yemeni Mothers and Children Dying Without Medical Care, MSF, https://www.msf.org/complicated-delivery-yemeni-mothers-and-children-dyingwithout-medical-care, p.12. 169