Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have raised a call for the United Nations to suspend Saudi Arabia from the UN Human Rights Council. While this action is more ceremonial than anything else, the situation in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s leading role in the affair has almost made it necessary. Pakistan’s decision to steer away from the conflict is one of our better ideas, and even if we cannot do anything to stop it, the least this country can claim is that it is not taking part in this gross violation of the sanctity of human life.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is faltering, not because it is unable to win on the battlefield, but because it seems completely indifferent to the human cost of its actions in Yemen. The civilians that are dying as a result of the air strikes ongoing since March 2015 has now reached the thousands. Out of more than 4,500 dead, at least half are believed to be civilians. The increasing frequency of reports coming in of the coalition using the internationally illegal cluster munitions are also troubling, because that means that Saudi Arabia could not care less about how many civilians die as a result of its war with the Houthi rebels. There are no efforts to prevent the loss of unnecessary deaths, and the 10 civilians that died in the city of Taiz in airstrikes on Tuesday were only the tip of the iceberg. Previous instances of airstrikes have been much worse. Market places, wedding ceremonies and hospitals have all been targeted.

But at the same time, ejecting Saudi Arabia on the basis of not adhering to international human rights standards means that principally, others should also follow. The United Nations must be wary enough to avoid this slippery slope, and remember that Saudi Arabia’s wealth, strategic location, inherent biases and overall attitude in Yemen has led to the need for this measure. Even if the international community ignores the transgressions in Yemen, there is always the crackdown on civil liberties in Saudi Arabia itself. The Shia community in Saudi Arabia has been imprisoned and has been handed down harsh sentences, even death, while the rest of the world silently watches. Riyadh’s presence on the council is a mockery of what the entire thing stands for, and it is time, that the rest of the global community steps up and tells the Saudi kingdom that the atrocities will not be tacitly supported, even if nothing else can be done about it yet.