BBC World Service’s programme ‘The Documentary’ discusses the hundreds of anti-war activists who migrated voluntarily to Iraq to serve as ‘human shields’ in 2003.
Commenting on whether these ‘human shields’ were an advantage for the political leadership in Iraq, Neve Gordon, Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Queen Mary – who has written extensively on this subject – said that could have been the case.
“It seems clear to me that Saddam Hussein used the Westerners who volunteered to serve as human shields for his own ends, but I think politics is always like that and there's no way to prevent it.”
Listen to the full programme on the BBC World Service.