ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DISTINCTION PRINCIPLE RELATED TO THE USE OF DRONES AS MILITARY WEAPON BY UNITED STATES BASED ON INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

RAUZATUL JANNAH,2021 ABSTRACTANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATIONOF DISTINCTION PRINCIPLE RELATEDTO THE USE OF DRONES AS MILITARYWEAPON BY UNITED STATES BASED ONINTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW:Faculty of Law Syiah Kuala University(vi. 72), pp.,bibl. (Sophia Listriani, S.H., LL.M) Drones are one of the developments in war technology. Drones are notexplicitly forbidden and they are not thought to be inherently indiscriminate ormalicious. However, in armed conflict situations, any weapon system, includingarmed drones are obviously subject to international humanitarian law. Severaldrone attacks launched by the United States caused civilian casualties. The use ofdrones must comply with general principles of international humanitarian law. Oneof the principles is distinction principles which requires parties to armed conflictsmust therefore direct their operations only towards military objectives anddifferentiate at all times between the civilian and combatants and between militaryobjectives and civilian objects.This study aims to find out the implementation of the distinction principleduring armed conflict according to International Humanitarian Law and how theimplementation of the distinction principle regarding the use of drones as militaryweapons by United States.The research methodology used in this study is normative research. Datacollection techniques through literature study to obtain secondary data, theoreticalreading material, legal history which relate to the material studied, and the judge'sdecision in several previous cases. This method aims to describe legal regulationsand how it is implemented.The results of this study indicate that the distinction principle is basically toprovide restrictions to combatants who are involved in armed conflict andprotection for the civilian population and objects. The implementation of thedistinction principle when the United States uses drones as military weapon is notproperly implemented as required by international humanitarian law. This can beseen from the number of civilian casualties who fell during drone attacks and thedestruction of civilian objects. It is recommended that states which use armed drones should abide byinternational humanitarian law, develop and commit to powerful standards fortransparency, oversight, and accountability in the use of armed drones and produceregular reports tracking drone strikes and casualties. States must align theirpractices and policies with international standards