The US drone war in Pakistan is illegal because it violates Pakistani sovereignty, according to the head of a United Nations team investigating civilian casualties from drone strikes.
Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, secretly visited Pakistan with a team of investigators and found that Pakistani authorities do not consent to drone strikes on their territory, contrary to claims made by US officials.
“The position of the government of Pakistan is quite clear,” said Emmerson. “It does not consent to the use of drones by the United States on its territory and it considers this to be a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“As a matter of international law the US drone campaign in Pakistan is therefore being conducted without the consent of the elected representatives of the people, or the legitimate government of the state. It involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent and is therefore a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” he added.
Emmerson said Pakistani authorities told him they have confirmed at least 400 civilian deaths by US drones in Pakistani territory. They also told him they “consider the drone campaign to be counter-productive and to be radicalising a whole new generation, and thereby perpetuating the problem of terrorism in the region.”
Emmerson, along with several other colleagues at the UN, formally announced an investigation into civilian casualties in US drone strikes last year, warning that some US drone strikes in Pakistan may amount to war crimes.
In a speech at Harvard Univesity, he said: “If the relevant states are not willing to establish effective independent monitoring mechanisms…then it may in the last resort be necessary for the UN to act.”
“The global war paradigm has done immense damage to a previously shared international consensus on the legal framework underlying both international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” Emmerson explained. “It has also given a spurious justification to a range of serious human rights and humanitarian law violations.”
“[It is] alleged that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Christof Heyns…has described such attacks, if they prove to have happened, as war crimes. I would endorse that view.”
Citing reports that the US has conducted follow-up drone strikes, Heyns, another US special rapporteur, said in June that, if true, “those further attacks are a war crime.”
The probability that these UN investigations alone will rein in the Obama administration’s ruthless expansion of the drone war is low, but they will serve to heighten public pressure in a political climate where the drone war is receiving increased attention.
OH! is it really! Why only now after all of the people senselessly killed and WHAT is the UN going to do if anything, twiddle their fingers like in Rawanda or Libya and countless other places ?…or is the gentleman only opening his mouth because the UN thinks folks want to hear "empty noise" once more. The UN needs to go back to sleep and if the position of the Pakastani Govt is clear, they need to statr shooting down the machines to indicate it.
The White Letter from The White House Smells not like a White Rose & it Stinks to High Heaven
by michael hall
First obama murdered children inside of foreign nations
so the people shopped at walmart to demonstrate their displeasure
then obama assassinated children and other innocents in countries we were not war with
so flags & troops were honored at every sports game around the land in garrulousness gratitude
Some lawyers screamed foul as did the few with conscience akin to Chomsky, Hedges & Blum
but their voices were drowned out by the silence of the bored & apathetic, the meekly submissive
still the good loyal citizens did scream for more guns as their constitutional right
& american idol worship is supposed to be a killer tonight so guess which item takes priority?
Consequently obama & the exalted mighty military murdered an unarmed american across the pond defecating on due process by defacto procedure
so what did WE THE PEOPLE then do you ask?
they ssucked down a blue pill sunk their head deeper into the sand to breath more patriotically
hush hush now little children its all a transparent secret nothing to see here just move along
While a depressed american teenager out looking for his murdered father with his cousin
stopped along a dirt road in the heart of a vast desert praying for his dad at dusk
in the middle of a cookout sitting around the fire, just these two american kids
without warning silence was broken by terrorism as they were subsequently droned to smithereens by the us military
Ah but some fires did light up more intensely this time
so obama & his bunch of hooligans had to reluctantly crawl out of their dark dungeon
they argued with legal thickets of sharpened stakes, moats, pickets, shielded by secrets & lies atop turrets no one could reach
through a tapestry of intricate semantics innuendos & bizarre definitions they declared they were upholding the constitution oxymoronically tagging this odium as wise and ethical
Claiming that the research was so sensitive & so secret that it could not be revealed
our divine heroes would then be exposed to violence & that would be quite unamerican
if that happened whistleblowers then would be scapegoated & we know what happens to them
do you really think that renditions & retaliatory vengeance are just deeds of the recent past?
Cattle mooed meekly as they contentedly chewed the crass cud of american idol worship
embedded sheep bleated reverently to the wolves in wool via indoctrination by years of cognitive brainwashing and dissonance bleaching via tv and schoolin'
the superbowl was a commercial success & beyonce lip-synced flawlessly again
& the flags, ah, the flags flew so high & piously, almost above it all, but did i see, a bloodstain, a tear or was it a puff of smoke?
Every war.., creating wars.., bombing countries.., by USA and EU governments as English been a illegal since 1806.., from that point on the USA has produced nothing but dishonesty.., a perpetuate and illegal creation in dictatorial regimes and their terrorism.., protecting them by all means as USA and EU is doing whatever asked by Saudis and Qatari and all other alike regime. USA and EU government always blame others.., is never them whom ar wrong.., is never them acting and pursuing the idea in Neo fascism.., is always other nation.., is always them that are the problem and US, English and french the Swedish have to solve it by killing innocent people.
so will there be U N resolution
calling for regime change in the USA, as in iraq libya. are israeli drones & overflights over lebanon gaza syria legal.
I blame the Pakistani people for not lynching every last one of these government officials who allowed the US to kill their citizens,and what about the Pakistani army? what a whimp.
hell to pay!!
The Problem Toba and camus10 the United states will veto any attempt by the security council to bring a resolution in relation to the matter, it will bully and cajole, and if necessary sail aircraft carriers up and down the coastline of any country that calls it out! As for it being an Obama problem, guess again Bush did it before him, this is just a carry on, illegal, but not unique to the current administration.
There is but one thing to do and that is remove from the permanent members of the UN Security council the right of veto and leave it as a straight vote of that body, with a full vote of the assembly if necessary!