In July, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings, Dr. Agnès Callamard, released her report on targeted killings by armed drones. The report highlights the proliferation of armed drone use by state and non-State actors is accompanied by an increasing disregard of central international law principles. The report examines the legality of the targeted killing of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani in a January as a case study and provides recommendations designed to regulate their use and increase accountability for targeted killings by armed drones.

Join CIC Edmonton as we hear from Dr. Agnes Callamard and Dr. James Rogers, armed drone expert and Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the report, who will talk about the findings of the July 2020 report, their thoughts and recommendations on the future of armed drones, as well as answer questions from the audience.

About the speakers:

Dr. Agnès Callamard is the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial summary or arbitrary executions as well as the Director of Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression. Dr. Callamard was previously the Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, the human rights organization promoting freedom of expression globally. She founded and led the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (now CHS Alliance), the 1st international self-regulatory body for humanitarian agencies. She was Chef de Cabinet for the Secretary General of Amnesty International (AI) and AI’s Research-Policy Coordinator.  She has advised multilateral organizations and governments around the world on human rights, including most recently the Special Advisor to the Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide. She has led human rights investigations in more than 30 countries and published extensively on human rights, women’s rights, freedom of expression, refugee movements and the methodology of human rights investigation.

Dr. James Rogers is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at SDU and Associate Fellow within The London School of Economics and Political Science’s foreign policy think tank (LSE IDEAS). He is currently Special Advisor to the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drones, Special Advisor to the United Nations, and a UK MoD Defence Opinion Leader. James is the Co-founder and Co-Convenor of BISA War Studies, the War Studies section of the British International Studies Association. Dr. Rogers’ research has been featured by the Washington Post, Economist, CNN, Reuters, the Guardian, Rolling Stone Magazine, ABC News, Wired, and Gizmodo. James is the presenter of the Untold History series on Dan Snow’s History Hit TV, a TEDx speaker, and a contributing expert to BBC Horizon, the History Channel and VICE.