On Oct. 18, a U.N. report stated that 33 drone strikes carried out around the world had resulted in civilian casualties in possible violation of international humanitarian law. The report by the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, examined incidents in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Gaza.
Japanese should not assume that remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicles for military purposes are being used only in remote parts of the world. In May, a report prepared for the U.N. Human Rights Commission by Christof Heyns, a South African professor of human rights, said that the United States, Britain, Israel, South Korea and Japan have developed various types of fully or semi-autonomous weapons, including drones.
Japanese citizens and politicians also need to be aware of the danger that a Chinese drone flying near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea may lead to an accidental military clash.