United Nations Wants Justification from U.S. for Drone Strikes

The United Nations' Human Rights Council will hold a debate Tuesday afternoon to discuss U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has caused a huge number of civilian causalities recently. The 74-member council is demanding the Obama administration provide legal justification for the increased drone strikes strategy it has adapted to target al-Qaida and Taliban members.

Recently, the Pakistani government has been very vocal about its concern over increased drone strikes which has killed hundreds of civilians in a matter of weeks, indicating that the tactic was violating international war law as well as violating Pakistan's sovereignty. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, also iterated his distaste for the strikes and has joined Pakistan in questioning its legal validity.

The Human Rights Council released a report stating: "The [American] government should clarify the procedures in place to ensure that any targeted killing complies with international humanitarian law and human rights and indicate the measures or strategies applied to prevent casualties, as well as the measures in place to provide prompt, thorough, effective and independent public investigation of alleged violations," as reported by the Slatest.

This is the second time such a complaint has being placed by the international entity; in 2009 the UN published a report expressing discontent and concern over America's drone strikes.

U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns demanded a disclosure of causalities stating that it "is critical to ensure accountability, justice and reparation for victims or their families," as reported by Reuters.

Last week, al-Qaida's second in command was killed in one of the drone strikes, an incident the Obama administration is using to defend its strategy.

Details on the 28 page report can be found here.

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