Drohnen und Künstliche Intelligenz sind aus modernen Kriegen kaum noch wegzudenken. Seit 2001 gehört die permanente Angst vor US-Drohnenangriffen zum Alltag vieler Menschen in Afghanistan oder im Jemen. Im Gazastreifen wird KI in großem Umfang für Luftangriffe, die Überwachung der Bevölkerung und das Aufspüren möglicher Ziele eingesetzt. Auch in der Ukraine beeinflusst die massenhafte Produktion kommerzieller Drohnen, die kostengünstig gegen klassische Militärtechnologie eingesetzt werden, maßgeblich den Kriegsverlauf. 

Der Einsatz von KI und Drohnentechnologie verändert grundlegend, wie Kriege geführt werden – und stellt die bisherige Vorherrschaft konventioneller militärischer Macht zunehmend infrage. Die Tötungsmaschinerie wird dabei von riesigen Datenmengen und deren automatisierter Auswertung angetrieben. 

Doch wer trägt Verantwortung für gezielte Tötungen, wenn letztlich eine Maschine oder ein Algorithmus über Leben und Tod entscheidet? Wie lässt sich der Einsatz von KI im Einklang mit Menschenrechten und dem Völkerrecht regulieren? Und vor allem: Welche Rechte und Handlungsmöglichkeiten haben die Betroffenen? Im Gespräch mit Anne Schroeter (ECCHR) sind Jutta Weber (Wissenschafts- und Technikforscherin, Philosophin, Medienwissenschaftlerin sowie Professorin für Mediensoziologie an der Universität Paderborn, Leiterin des Forschungsverbunds MEHUCO) und Andreas Schüller (Programmleiter des Bereichs Völkerstraftaten und rechtliche Verantwortung beim ECCHR, wo er u.a. Betroffene US-amerikanischer Drohnenangriffe unterstützt). 

Quellen in dieser Folge genannter Berichte:  

• Yuval Abraham: ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza

• Future of Life Institute: Slaughterbots

• Future of Life Institute: Slaughterbots – if human: kill()  

• Marc Santora, Lara Jakes, Andrew E. Kramer, Marco Hernandez and Liubov Sholudko: A Thousand Snipers in the Sky: The New War in Ukraine

• Human Rights Watch: A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making  

• ECCHR: Ramstein vor Gericht: Deutschlands Rolle bei US-Drohnenangriffen im Jemen

We have been raised and operate in an environment in which narrations on “migration” and “migrants” are intrinsically racist and colonial. The terms themselves attempt to eclipse and decontextualise Global South mobility within a deeply imbalanced and exploitative postcolonial global system. This allows policymakers to target racialized people by making their movement, stay and activities irregular through reforms focused on excluding them from legality.

Public acceptance of these policies is enabled by an often-non-critical media discourse which further dehumanizes migrants”. These othering narratives run deep and without actively seeking to identify and deconstruct them, they will be reproduced even by those acting for the interest of “migrants”.

In these circumstances, can we ever talk of “migrants” and “migration” without perpetuating racism and colonialism? How much do narratives matter in efforts for social justice?

In this episode, listen to the live recording of an evening event hosted by Hanaa Hakiki from ECCHR’s Border Justice team as she is joined by guests to explore how deeply narratives on migration are still trapped in racism and colonialism. Together they discuss knowledge and narrative formation, the pseudo-science of constructed identities and categories, as well as the aliveness of colonization coupled with collective amnesia. Thinking beyond the present, the guests talk about the power of reimagining new futures, of reclaiming language and celebrating amazing human connections.

Hanaa’s guests are Aghogho Akpome, Musa Okwonga and Sandra Alloush. Aghogho is a narratives specialist and associate professor from the University of Zululand. Through his project, “The refugee ‘crisis’ and European re-imaginings of Africa”, he has analysed the portrayal of black African refugees by authors, filmmakers and playwrights. Musa is a widely published journalist, the author of a number of books including, “In the End It was All About Love” and he hosts a very popular football podcast and Sandra is a Syrian refugee journalist and documentary filmmaker and vice chair of the European Network Against Racism.

Listen to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. Francesca speaks about her mandate in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the increasing threat to the international legal order. She also shares her experiences of repression and human rights violations she witnessed during her visit to Germany in February 2025.

In conversation with Francesca Albanese are Fiona Thorp, Legal Fellow in the Palestine Team at ECCHR, and Chantal Meloni, Senior Legal Advisor in the International Crimes and Accountability program.

ECCHR has worked on cases relating to crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians for over a decade. Recently, ECCHR has filed several requests for provisional measures against German exports of weapons of war and other military equipment to Israel, which are used in attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza. We have also compiled a detailed Q&A on the topic of genocide in Gaza and on the arrest warrants against Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

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image © Laura Fiorio

Die neue Folge „Staatsräson gegen Grundrechte“ beschäftigt sich mit der deutschen Staatsräson im Kontext der anhaltenden Kriegsverbrechen Israels in Gaza. Welche politischen, rechtlichen sowie gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen hat sie im Inneren? Und welche solidarischen Allianzen lassen sich gegen die repressiven Maßnahmen schließen? 

Im Gespräch mit Amira Tamim (ECCHR Alumna) sind Simin Jawabreh, Aktivistin und Politikwissenschaftlerin und Paula Zimmermann, Fachreferentin für Meinungs- und Versammlungsfreiheit bei Amnesty International. 

Das ECCHR hat mehrere Eilanträge gegen deutsche Kriegswaffen- und Rüstungsexporte nach Israel gestellt. Unsere Serie von Klagen und Eilanträgen begann am 11. April 2024 vor dem Verwaltungsgericht Berlin. Erfahrt ⁠hier ⁠mehr über den Fall. In unserem ⁠Q&A⁠ findet ihr Fragen und Antworten zum Thema Völkerrecht und den aktuellen Krieg in Gaza.Auch zum rechtlichen Hintergrund des Genozids sowie aktuellen Entwicklung haben wir Fragen und Antworten aufbereitet. Diese findet ihr ⁠hier.

Amnesty International veröffentlichte gerade einen Bericht, in dem sie zu dem Schluss kommen, dass Israel in Gaza einen Genozid begeht. Den Bericht findet ihr in englischer Sprache ⁠hier⁠. ⁠⁠⁠ Zur systematischen Einschränkung und Unterdrückung der Versammlungsfreiheit in Europa gab Amnesty ⁠diesen Bericht⁠ in englischer Sprache heraus.

Simin Jawabreh hat ⁠diesen Artikel⁠ zum kürzlich wieder eingeführten Ordnungsrecht und den damit verbunden Repressionen an deutschen Hochschulen verfasst.

In this episode, Ethiopian-American author Maaza Mengiste and Italian artist and photographer Laura Fiorio sit down with ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck.

The conversation centers on the colonial history of Italy in Ethiopia. Mengiste talks about the often overlooked role of women in Ethiopia's fight against Italian occupation during World War II, and Italian artist Fiorio talks about her work “My fascist Grandpa.”

Both bring their perspectives to contextualize photography and its manifold meaning and ability to hold and tell truths.

© Vittoria Trovato / Laura Fiorio

© Nina Subin / Maaza Mengiste

Human rights in times of crises #1

Welcome to ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights.

Alejandra Ancheita (lawyer, founder of ProDESC, Mexico), Joshua Castellino (executive director, Minority Rights Group International), and Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR General Secretary) kick off our talk series Human rights in times of crises.

On the basis of Kaleck’s latest book The concrete utopia of human rights: A look back into the future (in German, S. Fischer publishers), our guests discuss how, when faced with a climate crisis, a pandemic, deeply unequal economic models, and authoritarianism, human rights activists can no longer go on with business-as-usual. These unprecedented global transitions are a chance to rethink new strategies and ways forward, and reclaim human rights and their potential for change.

For more information, go to: ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Human rights in times of crises #2

Law not only organizes and secures economic profits, it is a crucial factor in creating wealth. Katharina Pistor (author, Columbia Law School) speaks with Guillermo Torres (lawyer, ProDESC), Johan Horst (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Miriam Saage-Maaß (ECCHR program director Business and Human Rights) about how corporate power and law are intertwined.

Our guests explore how economic and financial law are important factors in creating corporate power, and our legal and political options  to restrict this dynamic of growing corporate wealth and power. Can human rights, especially economic and social rights, play a role in insuring our societies become more equitable?

Human rights in times of crises is ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights. 

For more information, go to ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Human rights in times of crises #7

Colonialism continues to shape our current social, economic, and political world order to a substantial degree. In a discussion with prominent human rights advocates at this last event of our series, we will bridge different aspects of a larger struggle, encompassing reparations claims for German colonial crimes in Namibia, the legacy of slavery, unfinished decolonization, as well as the vibrant Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. How can human rights law be used to resist and counteract (post)colonial injustices? How are these movements broadening and intensifying their connections to human rights work and networks? 

In this episode, Sima Luipert (Deputy Chairperson of the Nama Traditional Leaders of Namibia), Vince Warren (Executive Director of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights), and Meena Jagannath (Director of Global Programs at Movement Law Lab based in Florida), take part in a conversation moderated by Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR General Secretary). 

Human rights in times of crises is ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights.

For more information, go to: ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Human rights in times of crises #6

Contemporary feminist movements have developed significantly worldwide in ways that speak to their revolutionary potential – including within authoritarian contexts. How can their theories, political content, and organizational forms – from grassroots collective activism to organized strikes – effectively bring about the political transformation and social change needed in our patriarchal societies? What are their demands and visions for the future? What are the difficulties in realizing these visions? What will sustain – and not limit – the movements’ more radical visions? What is the importance of acknowledging how discrimination is forged at the intersection of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, religion, and more? 

In this episode, we are happy to host two highly recommended guests: Marta Dillon is a journalist, writer, lesbian feminist activist, and one of the founders of the #NiUnaMenos grassroots movement in Argentina which campaigns against gender-based of violence. Magdalena Baran-Szoltys is a scholar, co-editor of the book About demands. How feminist activism succeeds, and active in the All-Poland Women’s Strike Movement as well as the protests against the Polish abortion law. The conversation is moderated by Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR General Secretary).

Human rights in times of crises is ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights.

For more information, go to: ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Human rights in times of crises #5

From widespread surveillance, torture and disappearances to the increased criminalization of protest and restrictive rules on associations, we are unquestionably witnessing a global pushback against civic spaces. The repressive tactics that seek to strip legitimacy and rights from activists and other civic actors is not just to be deplored in authoritarian countries, but also a very real threat in liberal democracies as well. While the phenomenon of shrinking spaces is certainly not new, the intersectional crises we face – from socio-economic inequality to climate change, the global pandemic, the rise of far-right populism, new technologies and the further concentration of wealth and power into fewer hands – demand that we rethink our approaches and strategies.

In this episode, our guests Ben Hayes, co-author of Rethinking civic space in an age of intersectional crises: A briefing for funders (2020), Isha Khandelwal, a human rights lawyer who can speak to the situation in India and Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR General Secretary) discuss concrete visions for organized forms of resistance. 

Human rights in times of crises is ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights.

For more information, go to: ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.