Growing worries about proliferation of “killer robots”

Growing worries about proliferation of “killer robots”

Published 20 April 2015

 

Fully autonomous weapons have not yet been developed, but technology is moving toward increasing autonomy. Such weapons would select and engage targets without further intervention by a human. Governments are increasingly recognizing the potential dangers posed by these fully autonomous weapons, and during a meeting last week, numerous governments expressed support for the need to ensure meaningful human control over targeting and attack decisions in warfare.

Governments are increasingly recognizing the potential dangers posed by fully autonomous weapons, or “killer robots,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last week. The first multilateral meeting on the weapon systems concluded on 16 May 2014 at the United Nations in Geneva.
During the meeting, numerous governments expressed support for the need to ensure meaningful human control over targeting and attack decisions in warfare (see “UN mulling rules to govern autonomous killer robots,” HSNW, 16 May 2014).
“There is now widespread recognition that ‘killer robots’ need to be urgently addressed,” said Mary Wareham, arms advocacy director at Human Rights Watch and coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. “The call for a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons systems has become a central feature of the debate.”
Fully autonomous weapons have not yet been developed, but technology is moving toward increasing autonomy. Such weapons would select and engage targets without further intervention by a human (see “Autonomous weapons which select, destroy targets without human intervention proliferate,” HSNW, 13 November 2014; “Robot warfare raises ethical question,” HSNW, 28 May 2014; and “Military technology outpaces laws of war,” HSNW, 7 January 2014).
Eighty-seven countries participated in the four-day Convention on Conventional Weapons meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems. The participants considered the technical, ethical and societal, legal, and operational concerns that the weapons raise.
At their next annual meeting, on 14 November, the 117 nations which are part of the Convention on Conventional Weapons will need to decide whether to continue the process.
Human Rights Watch says it supports urgent action to address fully autonomous weapons in any forum and urges governments to agree to more formal and substantive work to negotiate a new Convention on Conventional Weapons protocol to preemptively ban the weapons.
The adoption in 1995 of an international protocol banning blinding lasers is a compelling example of a weapon being preemptively banned before it was fielded or used, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch notes that it is a co-founder and coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the global coalition of fifty-one nongovernmental organizations in two dozen countries which was created in April 2013. On 12 May 2014, twenty Nobel Peace laureates issued a joint statement endorsing the campaign’s call for a pre-emptive ban on the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons.