Reacting to news that the Trump administration has revoked a part of an Obama executive order requiring reporting on civilian casualties, Daphne Eviatar, Amnesty International USA’s Director of Security with Human Rights stated:
“This is a shameful decision that will shroud this administration’s actions in even more secrecy with little accountability for its victims.
“The public deserves to know how many civilians are killed by U.S. actions. This is an unconscionable decision and in complete disregard of fundamental human rights.
“It is incomprehensible that this vital work will be left only to human rights organizations such as ours.”
Background
In 2016, Amnesty International USA spoke out on the Obama-era policy documenting standards for airstrikes, when they were first announced, calling for more transparency and accountability.
On June 6, 2018 Amnesty International published a report on air strikes in Raqqa, Syria documenting gaping holes in the US-led Coalition’s insistence that their forces did enough to minimize civilian harm, providing a strong prima facie case that many Coalition attacks that killed and injured civilians and destroyed homes and infrastructure violated international humanitarian law.
