Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston*

[Jefferson23]

Our MSM doing their job ignoring reports like this:


Human Rights Council
Fourteenth session
Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development




Addendum
Study on targeted killings**

Summary

In recent years, a few States have adopted policies that permit the use of targeted
killings, including in the territories of other States. Such policies are often justified as a
necessary and legitimate response to “terrorism” and “asymmetric warfare”, but have had
the very problematic effect of blurring and expanding the boundaries of the applicable legal
frameworks. This report describes the new targeted killing policies and addresses the main
legal issues that have arisen.



Introduction
1. A targeted killing is the intentional, premeditated and deliberate use of lethal force,
by States or their agents acting under colour of law, or by an organized armed group in
armed conflict, against a specific individual who is not in the physical custody of the
perpetrator. In recent years, a few States have adopted policies, either openly or implicitly,
of using targeted killings, including in the territories of other States.

2. Such policies have been justified both as a legitimate response to “terrorist” threats
and as a necessary response to the challenges of “asymmetric warfare.” In the legitimate
struggle against terrorism, too many criminal acts have been re-characterized so as to
justify addressing them within the framework of the law of armed conflict. New
technologies, and especially unarmed combat aerial vehicles or “drones”, have been added
into this mix, by making it easier to kill targets, with fewer risks to the targeting State.


3. The result of this mix has been a highly problematic blurring and expansion of the
boundaries of the applicable legal frameworks – human rights law, the laws of war, and the
law applicable to the use of inter-state force. Even where the laws of war are clearly
applicable, there has been a tendency to expand who may permissibly be targeted and under
what conditions. Moreover, the States concerned have often failed to specify the legal
justification for their policies, to disclose the safeguards in place to ensure that targeted
killings are in fact legal and accurate, or to provide accountability mechanisms for
violations. Most troublingly, they have refused to disclose who has been killed, for what
reason, and with what collateral consequences. The result has been the displacement of
clear legal standards with a vaguely defined licence to kill, and the creation of a major
accountability vacuum.



in full: http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/application/media/14%20HRC%20Targeted%20Killings%20Report%20%28A.HRC.14.24.Add6%29.pdf