By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters), -Bahrain, Russia, and other members the U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to end the body’s investigations into war crimes in Yemen. It was a crushing defeat for Western nations who sought to maintain the mission.

The Netherlands led resolution to extend the mandate of the Netherlands’ independent investigators for another two years was rejected by members.

The council had never defeated a resolution during its fifteen-year history.

Independent investigators stated in the past, that possible war crimes were committed by all parties in the conflict over seven years that pitted the Saudi-led coalition against the Iran-allied Houthi rebels.

According to activist groups, more than 100,000 people were killed and 4,000,000 displaced.

Peter Bekker (the Dutch ambassador) said the vote was a huge setback. Delegates were told by him that he could not help feeling “that this Council has failed Yemenis.”

“With this vote the Council effectively ends its reporting mandate. It has cut the lifeline for the Yemeni people with the international community.”

Stephane Dujarric, U.N. spokesperson said that Antonio Guterres believes accountability is still needed in Yemen.

“We will continue to press for accountability in Yemen, a place … in which civilians have seen repeated crimes committed against them,” Dujarric said.

Katharine Stasch from Germany, the ambassador to U.N. Geneva said: “While acknowledging the efforts of the coalition (Saudi) to investigate civil casualty claims via the joint incident assessment team, however, we believe it essential to have an U.N. mandated international, independent mechanism working towards accountability to the Yemeni people.”

This week, rights activists claimed that Saudi Arabia had lobbied against the Western resolution.

The U.N. Human Rights Council does not have a kingdom voting member, and their delegation has not responded to Reuters’ request for comment.

The debate was interrupted by Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri, the ambassador of Bahrain. He stated that an international team of investigators “contributed in spreading misinformation regarding the situation on ground” in Yemen.

Saudi ally Bahrain called for 21 countries to vote against the Dutch resolution. These included China, Cuba Pakistan, Russia and Venezuela. It was supported by 18 countries, including Britain and France as well as Germany.

Seven abstentions were recorded, and the delegation from Ukraine was absent. The United States is an observer nation.

Radhya almutawakel chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights in Yemen, an independent activist group, stated that she was very disappointed with the results.

“By voting against the renewal of the GEE today, UN member states have given a green light to warring parties to continue their campaign of death and destruction in Yemen,” she said, referring to the investigators known as the Group of Eminent Experts.

John Fisher from Human Rights Watch stated that the Human Rights Council’s failure to renew its mandate was “a stain” on their record.

“By voting no to this mandate many states have turned their faces at victims and succumbed to the pressure of the Saudi-led Coalition, and put principle before politics,” he stated.