Abstract
In the international arena there are some encouraging developments in relation to accountability and transparency for the use of armed drones. It is increasingly recognized that remote pilotless aircraft have become part of modern warfare, and that sometimes they are also used outside the context of armed conflict. Subsequently, both international humanitarian and human rights law can apply. The issue of access to justice, however, receives less explicit socio-political attention. Victims of armed remote pilotless aircraft strikes meet countless challenges in effectuating their right to an effective remedy. Often even a formal recognition that a strike has taken place is lacking. Furthermore, the states involved fail to publicly release information about their own investigations. This makes it difficult for those affected to substantiate their status as a victim and seek justice, including reparations. The international community should, in addition to urging involved states to independently and impartially investigate all armed drone strikes, ensure that access to an effective remedy for civilian victims, whether on an international, transnational or national level, becomes a reality.
Eijkman—This article is written in her private capacity
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Notes
- 1.
UN Human Rights Council 2010, para 1.
- 2.
- 3.
UN Human Rights Council 2014b.
- 4.
- 5.
Reprieve 2013.
- 6.
Amnesty International 2013.
- 7.
Devereaux 2015.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
UN Human Rights Council 2014a, pp. 18–19.
- 12.
Moir 2005, p. 108.
- 13.
UN Charter, Article 51.
- 14.
Human Rights Watch 2013.
- 15.
- 16.
Council of Europe (COE), ‘European Convention of Human Rights’, Rome, 4.IX 1950, Article2(1) (ECHR); UNGA, ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’, UNGA Res 2200A (XXI), 999, 1976, Article 6 (ICCPR), March 1976; UNGA 2005a.
- 17.
UN Human Rights Council 2010.
- 18.
Prepared remarks by the President of the United States at the National Defense University on the administration’s counter-terrorism policy 2013.
- 19.
- 20.
Prepared remarks by the President of the United States at the National Defense University on the administration’s counter-terrorism policy 2013.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
Geneva Conventions, Article 1; AP I, Articles 11, 85 (grave breaches), 87(3); Geneva Conventions I–IV, Articles 50/51/130/147.
- 25.
UN Economic and Social Council 1989.
- 26.
- 27.
Human rights law/Geneva Conventions (I–IV), Articles 49/50/129/146; Geneva Convention (IV), Articles 3 and 4. AP I, Article 75.
- 28.
- 29.
- 30.
- 31.
- 32.
Idem; UN Human Rights Committee 2004.
- 33.
- 34.
Centre for Civilians in Conflict and Colombia Law School 2012.
- 35.
On 12 December 2013, the United States aerial drone launched four Hellfire missiles on a convoy of 11 cars and pickup trucks during a counterterrorism operation in rural Yemen. The strike killed at least 12 men and wounded at least 15 others, 6 of them seriously. Witnesses and relatives of the dead and wounded interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Yemen said the convoy was a wedding procession Human Rights Watch 2014b.
- 36.
- 37.
Woods 2012.
- 38.
Idem.
- 39.
UN Human Rights Council, Panel discussion on “Ensuring use of remotely piloted aircraft or armed drones in counterterrorism and military operations in accordance with international law, including international human rights and humanitarian law”, draft notes, September 2014, http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15080&LangID=E. Accessed 28 September 2014.
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Eijkman, Q., Bakker, M. (2016). Access to an Effective Remedy and Reparations for Civilian Victims of Armed Drone Strikes. In: Custers, B. (eds) The Future of Drone Use. Information Technology and Law Series, vol 27. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-132-6_15
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