The Drone Problem: Expedite the Creation of International Rules!

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/228188/the-drone-problem-expedite-the-creation-of-international-rules/

The Drone Problem: Expedite the Creation of International Rules!
Kumamoto Nichi Nichi Shimbun, Japan
By Editorial
Translated By Taylor Cazella
10 December 2013
Edited by Bora Mici

Unmanned drones, which can attack an enemy from some distance away via remote operation without exposing our troops to danger, sometimes cause the humanitarian problem of involving civilian bystanders in the conflict. The lack of clear international rules regarding their usage is leading to a new sort of arms race.

Ben Emmerson, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, conducted a survey at the request of the U.N. Human Rights Commission regarding civilian damages from unmanned drone strikes; the report was made public in October. Primarily American and British military forces carry out unmanned drone strikes against the international terrorist group al-Qaida and the militant Islamic Taliban organization.

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On account of these findings, Emmerson has made an appeal that each country expedite the creation of rules. There are various legal issues regarding unmanned drone strikes that have not been agreed on internationally, which indicates a strong possibility that the use of unmanned drone strikes — by the U.S. in particular, using the war on terror as a pretext and failing to establish a clear boundary for the battlefield — is a violation of international standards.

Held in Geneva in mid-November, a special international conference for a treaty on the use of conventional weapons agreed to begin discussions in May of next year about possible regulations on "lethal robotic weaponry." However, both the U.S. and Great Britain are making the claim that, since unmanned drones do not automatically discern and kill an enemy, they are not robotic weaponry.