Drone strikes, pervasive surveillance from air and outer space and developments in artificial intelligence are among the reasons behind the need for a new human right not to live in fear of the sky above. That is the thinking behind a campaign of lawyers, academics and artists which last night published proposals for a new human right 'to live without physical or psychological threat from above'. 

The proposal follows hearings on three continents of an 'airspace tribunal', convened by two University of Kent academics, artist Professor Shona Illingworth and human rights law expert Professor Nick Grief. 

Current international law governing aviation (the Chicago Convention) and space (the Outer Space Treaty) date from the 1940s and 1960s respectively, Grief told an event hosted by London set Doughty Chambers last night. The proposed right 'to live without physical or psychological threat from above' would take into account the pervasive impact of technologies unforeseen at the time, the event heard. 

‘What we are proposing is quite simply the right to live without physical and, very importantly, psychological threat from above,' Shillingworth said. 'Our proposal recognises the psychological harm that people are subject to and that is particularly damaging when the threats are invisible and continuous. In the current legal framework, there is virtually no recognition of this psychological harm.’

The proposed right is to be presented to the United Nations and the Council of Europe this summer. Hopes for early take-up lie with smaller countries rather than the existing great powers, Professor Renata Salecl of Birkbeck Law School told the event. She cited the precedent of the right to sustainable development, which required a decade from proposal to widespread adoption. 

Doughty Street's Kirsty Brimelow KC, who was counsel to the tribunal, pointed to what she portrayed as an anomaly on the current rights menu. 'While we have a human right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions, there is not yet a right to be in possession of peaceful enjoyment of airspace,' she said.

 

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