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Summary: The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, will formally launch on Thursday 24 January 2013 an inquiry into the civilian impact of the use of drones and other forms of targeted killing.
Focusing on the applicable legal framework, the inquiry will take the form of a critical examination of the factual evidence concerning civilian casualties, with a view to making recommendations to the UN General Assembly concerning the duty of States to conduct effective independent and impartial investigations into the lawfulness and proportionality of such attacks, to be presented later this year. The inquiry will be launched publicly at a press conference this Thursday, 24 January 2013, to be held at 11:00 GMT, at Matrix Chambers, Griffin Building, Grays Inn, London WC1R 5LN. The Special Rapporteur will make a statement setting out the aims and objectives of the inquiry, its modalities and time-frame. He will also announce the names of the experts and other personnel who will be involved in the inquiry. Ben Emmerson (United Kingdom) is the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. On 1 August 2011, he took up his functions on the mandate that was created in 2005 by the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights and renewed by the United Nations Human Rights Council for a three year period in September 2010. As Special Rapporteur he is independent from any Government and serves in his individual capacity. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Terrorism/Pages/SRTerrorismIndex.aspx For more information and media requests please contact Claudia Gross (+41 22 917 9184 / [email protected]) or wirte to [email protected].