Context
Former President Jimmy Carter denounced the US predator drone campaign saying it “abets our enemies and alienates our friends”. Moreover, he condemned US counterterrorism policies for its various violations.
Carter stated: “Despite an arbitrary rule that any man killed by drones is declared an enemy terrorist, the death of nearby innocent women and children is accepted as inevitable. After more than 30 airstrikes on civilian homes this year in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has demanded that such attacks end, but the practice continues in areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen that are not in any war zone. We don’t know how many hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks, each one approved by the highest authorities in Washington. This would have been unthinkable in previous times.” He added it is against human rights and asked Washington to “reverse course and regain moral leadership. US should promote the basic rule of law and principles of justice at the time of popular revolutions.
He further stated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 had been used by the US to invoke human right causes, replace dictatorships and promote the rule of law in domestic affairs, but its counter terrorism policies violate at least 10 of the declaration’s 30 articles.
