• Press Release

Crucial Voices Missing from House Hearing on Drones

February 27, 2013

Contact: Sharon Singh, [email protected], 202-675-8579, @spksingh

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Zeke Johnson, director of Amnesty International USA’s Security and Human Rights campaign, issued the following statement in response to today’s hearing held by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on the use of drones to target U.S. citizens overseas who are suspected of terror activities:

“Today's hearing on drones was a good first step, but key voices were missing and important points are being ignored in the D.C. echo chamber. Now, Congress needs to hold further hearings on drones with experts on international human rights and humanitarian law, survivors of drone attacks and Obama administration officials.

“The United States doesn’t need new laws, additional rules or a kill court. The Obama administration needs to follow the ‘rule book’ for the use of lethal force that already exists: international human rights law and, in the narrow circumstances it applies, the law of armed conflict.

“Now it is time for Congress to step up, cut through the noise and begin pushing the Obama administration to follow the laws that are already on the books.”

For further information regarding drone courts, please visit Zeke Johnson’s latest blog or go to www.amnestyusa.org.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.