The ICJ’s Director of the International Law and Protection Programmes, Alex Conte, was today an expert member of a plenary panel of the UN Human Rights Council concerning the application of international law to the use of armed drones.
The ICJ joined several other international organisations in today’s open letter to the UN Human Rights Council sharing concerns about State practices of targeted killings and the use of armed drones.
The open letter urges UN Member States and the Human Rights Council to undertake several steps towards ensuring transparency, compliance with international law, meaningful oversight, effective remedies for victims and effective investigations, tracking and response to civilian harm.
The letter was sent to Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States to the Human Rights Council ahead of the Council’s Panel on the application of international law to the use of armed drones, to be held on 22 September 2014.
HRC27-JointNGOStatement-ArmedDrones-Non-OpenLetter-2014 (download joint NGO letter in PDF)
Amnesty International, with support from the ICJ, will hold a parallel event, in the margins of the UN Human Rights Council’s 27th session in Geneva, on armed drones and international law, to be held on Thursday 18 September 2014 at 13:30 in room XXIV of the Palais des Nations.
The Colombian Commission of Jurists, an ICJ affiliate, delivered an oral statement during the Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, at the Human Rights Council.
Matt Pollard and Alex Conte, of the ICJ’s International Law and Protection Programmes, will give presentations during the Global Consultation on the Right to Challenge the Lawfulness of Detention, to be held in Geneva on 1-2 September 2014.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in cooperation with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, will convene the Consultation. The aim of the two-day meeting is to seek input on the development by the Working Group of draft basic principles and guidelines on remedies and procedures on the right of anyone deprived of his or her liberty, by arrest or detention, to bring proceedings before court, in order that the court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his or her detention and order his or her release if the detention is not lawful.
ICJ experts, Matt Pollard and Alex Conte, will be members of two panel discussions during the Global Consultation, respectively on the framework, scope and content of the right to court review of detention and on exercise of that right in situations of armed conflict, state of emergency or for counter-terrorism purposes.
The ICJ has already made two written submissions to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the subject, in November 2013 and April 2014.
Go to the OHCHR webpage on the Global Consultation
See the ICJ’s written submissions to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Sudan: ICJ joins call to extend UN Fact-Finding Mission and strengthen accountability
ICJ hosts Johannesburg roundtable on the draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty with the Malala Fund and other civil society actors
Kenya: ICJ co-hosts judicial dialogue on obstetric violence, human rights and the law
Libya: Authorities must promptly implement the Structured Dialogue’s human rights recommendations