Human Rights & Public Liberties

Human Rights & Public Liberties

Newsletter
Published on: 13 Jan, 2021

Human rights groups call on Biden to end lethal strikes abroad

Published on: 5 July, 2021
US President Jo Biden

US President Jo Biden

More than 110 groups from the US and other countries signed a letter addressed to US President Jo Biden in which they demanded an end to the US program of lethal strikes abroad, including drone strikes.

The US has long used drone strikes against what they consider to be ‘terrorist targets.’

The letter stated: ‘We write to demand an end to the unlawful program of lethal strikes outside any recognized battlefield, including through the use of drones. This program is a centerpiece of the United States’ forever wars and has exacted an appalling toll on Muslim, Brown, and Black communities in multiple parts of the world.’

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Sarah Leah Whitson executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) said: ‘For too long, the US has authorized to itself the right to bomb whatever it wants, whenever it wants, on a dubious argument of a “global war on terror”. Not only have we reaped wanton destruction on innocents around the world, we’ve undermined international law and diminished US standing. The best thing President Biden can do right now is end the lethal strikes program and work to rejoin the global, rules-based order.’

The human rights groups were particularly critical of attacks which occurred outside of traditional combat zones in the form of extrajudicial killings which  indiscriminately killed civilians.