Living Under Drones at Hopkins

Two authors of a new NYU/Stanford report, Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan, will share their findings about the civilian consequences of drone warfare with the Hopkins community. 

Thursday, November 15

6:00 pm                                  

Mergenthaler 111 –Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus

James Cavallaro, director of the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford University and Omar Shakir, a Stanford Law student, recently returned from Pakistan where they studied the impact of drone warfare on civilians.  The study's purpose was to conduct an "independent investigation into whether, and to what extent, drone strikes in Pakistan conformed to international law and caused harm and/or injury to civilians".  Their report - widely covered in the national and international media - details the terrorizing effects of the US government's drone assaults as well as the many misleading statements by administration officials about that campaign.  Lauren Wilcox, a Postdoctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins Political Science department and an expert on drones, will join Cavallaro and Shakir on stage to discuss her research and Hopkins' role in drone research and development.

The event is part of the Johns Hopkins Human Rights Working Group’s ongoing campaign to raise awareness about drone warfare and the university's involvement in drone research.  The HRWG is concerned that drone technologies are lowering the threshold for war, and that U.S. drone attacks violate human rights and national sovereignty, have caused large numbers of civilian casualties, and are taking place largely outside public accountability.  The group feels that these issues are of particular concern to members of the Hopkins community and citizens of the Baltimore/DC area because of Hopkins's involvement in drone research.