On June 30, 2021, 113 organizations from the United States and around the world sent a letter to President Biden calling for an end to the U.S. program of lethal strikes outside recognized battlefields, including through the use of drones. This program is a centerpiece of the United States’ forever wars and has exacted an appalling toll on Muslim, Brown, and...
This roundup, curated by ReThink Media, looks at how the media is talking about drone warfare (and related topics) and what stories are being told. With little transparency from governments on this topic, this roundup aims to be as comprehensive as possible, identifying breaking news, trends, developing stories, or interesting narratives. Rethink Media also use media coverage to compile a snapshot of...
This roundup, curated by ReThink Media, looks at how the media is talking about drone warfare (and related topics) and what stories are being told. With little transparency from governments on this topic, this roundup aims to be as comprehensive as possible, identifying breaking news, trends, developing stories, or interesting narratives. Rethink Media also use media coverage to compile a snapshot of...
In a statement delivered at the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, 14 civil society organizations from across the world have urged States to actively engage towards establishing clear norms and standards on the development, production, export and use of armed drones. The escalating drone war in Libya, the targeted killing of Iranian General Soleimani by a US drone, and...
Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has written a new report in which especially the issue of targeted killings through armed drones is addressed. In 2010, 2013 and 2014, former UN Special Rapporteurs Philip Alston and Christof Heyns initiated the legal discussions on the many concerns around state accountability for extrajudicial killings with armed drones in...
The Trump administration plans to reinterprets an arms agreement in order to sell more American military drones, three defense industry executives and a U.S. official told Reuters. The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), signed in 1987 by the U.S. and other states, was developed to counter the proliferation of missiles for the delivery of all types of weapons of mass destruction...
Arthur Holland Michel, author of ‘Eyes In The Sky’, is one of the co-founders of the Centre for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York State. The Centre for the Study of the Drone has done extraordinary work in monitoring the spread in the use of drones, including publication of ‘The Drone Databook’, a detailed country-by-county study of...
The latest report of Drone Wars UK, ‘In the Frame: UK Media Coverage of Drone Targeted Killing‘, looks at UK involvement in drone targeted killing and in particular at media coverage of British citizens killed in such strikes. It argues that the government’s refusal to discuss key details or policy issues around these operations has helped to curtail coverage, creating...