Published today, the Defence Select Committee’s report on drones echoes recent calls made by UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson for the Ministry of Defence to publish details of any incident involving civilian casualties and any lessons learned from review processes.
Whilst the Committee is satisfied that UK drone operations comply with international law, the report draws attention to concerns that UK intelligence could contribute to drone strikes carried out by its allies and calls for “greater transparency in relation to safeguards and limitations the UK Government has in place for the sharing of intelligence".
The Committee also acknowledged “a number of legal questions on which there is no clear international consensus” and recommended the UK Government engage actively in the debate on a legal framework for the use of drones.
UNA-UK will continue to call on UN members states, in particular the UK, to build consensus across the international community on these pressing legal ambiguities. We will also continue to seek clarification from the UK Government as to whether UK intelligence has been used, or could in the future be used, to facilitate lethal drone strikes carried out by other states in non-conflict situations.
The trend towards autonomy
The report also clarified the UK’s position on the trend towards greater autonomy in drones:
“Current UK policy is that the operation of weapon systems will always be under human control and that no planned offensive systems are to have the capability to prosecute targets without involving a human.”
As a member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, UNA-UK welcomes this statement; however, further clarification is needed from the UK Government with regard to its definition of "human control".
A natural next step for the UK Government would be to formalise its policy on fully autonomous weapons by endorsing a national moratorium on the development of these weapons, as advocated by UN Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns, and to work at the international level for the development of an appropriate legal framework to control their future development.
Image: UK Parliament (reproduced with the permission of Parliament).
