On 6 December 2018, U.N.-led negotiations on the armed conflict in Yemen opened in Stockholm, Sweden under the leadership of the U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths. There are representatives from two of the major factions, the Yemeni Government now located in the southern port of Aden, and the rival Houthi who control the traditional capital of Sana’a. The talks are planned to last a week and to focus on confidence-building measures such as an exchange of prisoners and on humanitarian aid. Yemen Humanitarian Relief: Necessary First Steps on a Long Road of Reconciliation “Shall we not learn from life, its laws, dynamics, balances? Learn to base our needs not on death, destruction, waste, but on renewal” Nancy Newall A consequence of the bombing in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition is the starvation of the civilian population due to lack of food and water. Due to the widespread use of defoliants in the Vietnam war, there was written as Article 54(2) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, a prohibition to destroy foodstuffs, crops, drinking water installations and irrigation works. Yemen is, at the best of times, short of food and drinking water installations. The bombing has deliberately increased the hardships as well as increasing the number of displaced people with the resulting lack of access to food and water. The continued aggression of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition against civilians in Yemen, the use of U.S.-made cluster munitions in violation of the Convention of Cluster Munitions, the large-scale displacement of people and the wide-spread hunger highlight the relation among human rights violations, arms control, meeting basic needs and the resolution of armed conflicts through negotiations in good faith. It is felt by the U.N. staff and the parties represented that it is too early to undertake direct discussions on political issues, especially...

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