We’re often told it’s brutal regimes that trade in terror, when in fact democratic governments – including ours – have begun using a new weapon of choice: drones.

Drones are unmanned aircraft, remotely controlled by ‘pilots’ from the ground at great distance from war zones. Far from being ‘precision weapons’ which kill intended targets with a high level of accuracy , recent research indicates that at least 2,505 people have been killed by drones in Pakistan alone.

Drones are indiscriminate weapons of war responsible for thousands of civilian deaths. In Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, millions live under the constant threat of drone attacks.

To date, only three countries – the US, Israel and the UK – are known to have used armed drones. In fact, despite David Cameron signalling the scaling back of operations in Afghanistan, Britain is doubling the size of its fleet of Reaper drones in the country.

Rather than expanding the UK’s arsenal, our government should ban indiscriminate killer drones, just as landmines and cluster munitions were banned before them.

At War on Want we’ve been compiling evidence of the human rights abuses committed by remote controlled aircraft in Palestine and the terrible psychological impact on the people living under constant drone surveillance, never knowing when the next strike will come.

If these killer drones were banned, thousands of lives could be saved and human rights atrocities across the world could be prevented.

Sign the petition now to pressure the UK government to ban the use of drones as weapons of war.