Challenges Encountered by International Humanitarian Law in the Development of Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Development of military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has led the governments possessing these kinds of technology to go beyond the geographic and legal boundaries such that the employment of those instruments has brought International Humanitarian Law (IHL) procedural and substantive challenges; as the former governs the method of using of those tools and the latter governs the procedure of controlling the UAVs. Obviously, the emergence of procedural and substantive challenges from the development of military UAVs demands the necessity of re-reading of traditional regulations and passing new laws in the field. Although, the current principles and regulations considerably cover various dimensions of modern technologies, including the employment of drones, both in present and future, using advanced technologies might possibly provide grounds for governments to misuse the existing gaps as the regulations of IHL are unable to fully provide a clear answer in handling all of those difficulties. In this regards, it is essential to take crucial steps in developing and drawing new frameworks for using and controlling modern military technologies including military UAVs.