As the cases of Yemen, Libya, Northern Syria and the recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrate, the rapidly growing proliferation and use of drones have serious implications for conflicts all over the world. UN experts also remain concerned about their compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights law standards. In a webinar, hosted on December 2nd 2020 by Vrede, Pax...

08 December, 2020 /

Armed drones and drone technology continue to proliferate around the world. The ramifications of their use are seen in Libya, Somalia, Yemen and, more recently, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In a side event to the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, hosted on October 22th, 2020 by the Stimson Center and PAX, experts discussed the role multilateral...

23 October, 2020 /

Armed drones continue to proliferate, and States remain largely silent on their legal justifications guiding targeted drone strikes. Without bold leadership and multilateral collaboration, the global community remains at risk of unchecked proliferation and irresponsible use and export of drones. In this webinar, on October 22, experts will discuss current trends, initiatives, and opportunities that could be undertaken in a multilateral...

16 October, 2020 /

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...

14 October, 2020 /

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...

16 July, 2020 /

Jet Groenendijk and Isa Zoetbrood, two students from the University of Utrecht, have made a podcast in which they talk about remote warfare. In the first episode, Groenendijk and Zoetbrood discuss the Dutch MQ-9 Reapers that the Netherlands will receive in the summer of 2020. Two experts, Wim Zwijnenburg, Programme Leader Humanitarian Disarmament at PAX, and Lauren Gould, assistent professor at...

13 July, 2020 /

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...

23 June, 2020 /

This month, the European Commission announced the new selected European defence research projects and opened calls for new defence research proposals. The development of uncrewed systems plays a significant role in both the selected projects and call for proposals, which will all be funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF). A new selected research project, which should be finished within 2...

24 April, 2020 /