Philip Alston Quotations

Under international law, widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population are crimes against humanity.

When defense lawyers are murdered, the rule of law is doubly at stake. Human rights law requires that all murders be investigated in a credible manner. Moreover, defense attorneys are critical to a fair trial, and their systematic assassination threatens the entire process.

The dangerous escalation of the conflict in recent days is a direct consequence of killings being allowed to run unchecked.

The government is, in effect, instructing its forces to shoot innocent people, in complete disregard for the right to life.

An independent investigation is essential because these killings have huge implications for efforts to establish the rule of law in Iraq.

This is clearly a situation in which a failure to undertake a convincing investigation will have major negative implications for all that the government is trying to achieve.

The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators [which are] particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan...My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Because operators are based thousands of miles away from the battlefield, and undertake operations entirely through computer screens and remote audio feed, there is a risk of developing a 'PlayStation' mentality to killing.

This strongly asserted but ill-defined license to kill without accountability is not an entitlement which the United States or other states can have without doing grave damage to the rules designed to protect the right to life and prevent extrajudicial executions.