By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to suspend Saudi Arabia from the U.N. Human Rights Council until a Saudi-led military coalition stops killing civilians in Yemen.
"Saudi Arabia has amassed an appalling record of violations in Yemen while a Human Rights Council member," said Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch. "U.N. member countries should stand with Yemeni civilians and suspend Saudi Arabia immediately."
A Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign in Yemen in March 2015 to defeat Iran-allied Houthi rebels.
Saudi Arabia is in its final year of a three-year term on the 47-member Human Rights Council.
The Saudi mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A two-third majority vote by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly can suspend a state from the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council for persistently committing gross and systematic violations of human rights during its membership.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said they had documented 69 unlawful airstrikes in Yemen by the coalition in which at least 913 civilians were killed, and homes, markets, hospitals, schools, civilian businesses, and mosques were hit. They said some of it may amount to war crimes.
The United Nations briefly blacklisted the coalition this month in a report that blamed the coalition for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in the conflict last year, which amounted to 510 dead and 667 wounded.
However, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon succumbed to what he described as unacceptable pressure and removed the coalition from the blacklist pending a joint review.
U.N. sanctions monitors said in January that the coalition had targeted civilians in Yemen with air strikes and some of the attacks could be crimes against humanity.
Richard Bennett, head of Amnesty International's U.N. Office, also accused Saudi Arabia of human rights abuses at home.
"It has carried out hundreds of executions, put children on death row after grossly unfair trials, and ruthlessly repressed opposition and human rights activists," he said.
The U.N. General Assembly has previously suspended a country from the Human Rights Council.
In March 2011, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously suspended Libya's membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council because of violence against protesters by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.