After a three-day survey of the country, a United Nations terrorism and human rights envoy has issued a statement calling US use of drone strikes in Pakistan a violation of international law.
“The position of the government of Pakistan is quite clear: It does not consent to the use of drones by the United States on its territory and it considers this to be a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights.
“I’m not aware of any state in the world that currently shares the United States’ expansive legal perspective that it is engaged in a global war — that is to say a non-international armed conflict with al Qaeda and any group associated with al Qaeda, wherever they are to be found, that would therefore lawfully entitle the United States to take action involving targeted killing wherever an individual is found,” Emmerson said.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the State Department has seen Emmerson’s statement and will wait until after seeing the entire report before commenting further.
“We don’t see drones as productive at all,” Pakistan’s ambassador the United States, Sherry Rehman said, arguing that the drone attacks have fueled anti-American sentiment and created sympathy for the intentions of organizations such as Al-Qaeda.
