The growing use of weaponised drones risks destabilising global peace and security and creating a “drone power club” among nations, that face no effective accountability for deploying them as part of their “war on terror”, a senior UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Thursday.
Fearless. Plain-speaking. Critical. Courageous. Unflinching. Unfair. Biased. Manipulative. These are some of the adjectives used to describe the Human Rights Council experts who fan out across the world to research, hold consultations and gather information on a vast range of human rights violations.
UN human rights expert Agnès Callamard has been involved in some of the most talked-about stories of the past year, from investigating the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to condemning the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Ms. Callamard has also been highly critical of Malta’s response to the killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and in October, alongside fellow Special Rapporteur David Kaye, she called on the Maltese authorities to do more to find those responsible for her death.
Refugees, migrants and others are being treated almost as sub-human in some circumstances, according to independent rights expert Agnes Callamard, who delivered her report to the General Assembly a few days ago.
The Special Rapporteur passionately described situations in which there appears to be “complete indifference” to the rights of refugees, saying they are being treated sometimes “not quite as human”.
She has led human rights investigations in more than 30 countries and advised multilateral organizations and governments around the world on the issue.
The government of the Philippines needs to take “urgent action” to address a “spiralling” series of human rights violations, including the summary execution of children.
That’s the conclusion of a group of independent UN rights experts, who have issued a joint call to action, in order to protect “many groups” in society threatened by the hard-line government of President Rodrigo Duterte.