This chapter examines conventional human rights law, where the right to life is expressed in terms of protection either from ‘arbitrary’ or from ‘intentional’ deprivation of life. Every case of targeted killing by State agents occurring outside the territorial jurisdiction of the operating State brings the targeted person within the ‘jurisdiction’ of that State within the meaning of the ICCPR, the ACHR, and the ECHR. In other words, a State exercising sufficient factual control or power to carry out a targeted killing will also exercise sufficient factual control to assume legal responsibility for its failure to ‘respect’ the right to life of the targeted person under conventional human rights law. The extent to which a State also has a positive obligation to actively ‘protect’ the right to life of individuals outside its territorial jurisdiction, on the other hand, must be determined by reference to the level of control actually exercised over the territory or person in question.
Keywords: human rights law, arbitrary deprivation of life, intentional deprivation of life, law enforcement paradigm, lethal force, right to life