Drones and Human Rights

What are drones?

Drones are nothing but flying unmanned robots. Drones were initially developed to gather intelligence. But, recently they've been associated with some target killing events. These killings, by the government of different countries, were aimed to eliminate possible terror threats. Which makes it an international human rights issue of serious public concern.

"Drones controlling Humans"

The drones have made a good impact in many ways and have helped in reducing many threats. But the drones are also guilty of killing civilians and exploiting human rights. So the real questions that arise here is - are the drones controlling our lives? Should we be confident about this technology or be worried?

Today the government is targeting possible threats. Tomorrow we may have to live under the fear that a drone is going to harm us if we disobey any public policy. This may not be something we may have seen in common, but nobody can surely say there is no possibility of that happening. Which may violate the fundamental human right?
In the last five years, the US has conducted about 200 strikes killing 2600+ people. Many among these were civilians, women, and children. These have violated International Laws in the past. In the name of eliminating terrorism, it is not right to take lives of innocent people. In fact, it is not right to kill anyone for the sake of them being "possible" threats.
Challenges with Drones
From the human rights perspective, the expansion of the drone market poses a lot of challenges on how to ensure that human rights principles are integrated into all potential uses of these robots. There has been a lot of debate on this topic.
It's not the drone that causes the problem; it's the policy and choice to use the instrument that creates a problem. Violating human rights is in no way going to resolve terrorism. More than eliminating threats, the drones are creating fear in the minds of people.
They are termed as artificial intelligence now but what if they evolve into synthetic intelligence? If in the wrong hands, every new technology can be catastrophic. So we should see to it that these present drones don't get into the wrong hands.
These are program controlled drones and can kill and injure without a person being in it. The lack of emotion would eliminate negative human qualities such as fear, vengeance, rage and human error which are positives. However, out of emotions, a person can program a robot for killing or injuring fellow civilians, even on a mass scale.
No government has the license to kill. There is a lack of transparency on the condition in which the drones are being deployed.
The Final Word
We must consider a possibility that the drones can also be hacked and used in a much worse way. It is crucial that we understand the opportunities presented by this technology such as drone photography etc. and also robustly analyze the limitations and possible effects for their more appropriate use. The time to start thinking is now to support the protection of human rights and safety of individuals across the globe.

So is this start of a drone war? Machines vs. Humans? Time to think.