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UN Secretary-General and ICRC issued a joint appeal
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Rating inherited from publication venue: Human Rights Watch
Covers a key 2024 UN policy development on lethal autonomous weapons systems, relevant to AI governance discussions about maintaining human oversight and control over AI-enabled military systems.
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Importance: 58/100news articlenews
Summary
Human Rights Watch reports on a UN Secretary-General report released August 2024 calling for an international treaty by 2026 to prohibit lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) that function without human control. The report, mandated by UN General Assembly Resolution 78/241, urges states to begin negotiations on banning weapons that delegate life-and-death targeting decisions to machines without meaningful human oversight.
Key Points
- •UN Secretary-General Guterres calls for a binding treaty by 2026 to prohibit autonomous weapons systems that cannot comply with international humanitarian law.
- •Lethal autonomous weapons select and attack targets via sensor processing rather than human inputs, raising serious humanitarian and ethical concerns.
- •The report was mandated by UN General Assembly Resolution 78/241 (December 2023), reflecting growing international momentum on LAWS governance.
- •Technological advances are enabling weapons systems with expanded operational duration, scope, and autonomy, increasingly removing meaningful human control.
- •Human Rights Watch urges governments to begin treaty negotiations without delay, citing broad existing international support for addressing the issue.
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| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous Weapons | Risk | 56.0 |
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[Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/)
## Killer Robots: New UN Report Urges Treaty by 2026
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses a press conference outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on April 19, 2022.© John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Associated Press
(New York, August 26, 2024) – Governments should heed United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ call to open negotiations on a new international treaty on [lethal autonomous weapons systems](https://docs-library.unoda.org/General_Assembly_First_Committee_-Seventy-Ninth_session_(2024)/A-79-88-LAWS.pdf) Human Rights Watch said today. These “killer robots” select and attack targets based on sensor processing rather than human inputs, a dangerous development for humanity.
In a [report released on August 6, 2024](https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs-library.unoda.org%2FGeneral_Assembly_First_Committee_-Seventy-Ninth_session_(2024)%2FA-79-88-LAWS.pdf&data=05%7C02%7Cwareham%40hrw.org%7C66d200d6acdd4ca9b30208dcb71d5912%7C2eb79de4d8044273a6e64b3188855f66%7C0%7C0%7C638586584092414724%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nxTAC4iQWLHIuDCKqM5hIZX9Hm1V3O23uRde0fRMbNc%3D&reserved=0), the secretary-general reiterated his call for states to conclude by 2026 a new international treaty “to prohibit weapons systems that function without human control or oversight and that cannot be used in compliance with international humanitarian law.” This treaty should regulate all other types of autonomous weapons systems, the secretary-general said.
“The UN secretary-general emphasizes the enormous detrimental effects removing human control over weapons systems would have on humanity,” said Mary Wareham, deputy crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “The already broad international support for tackling this concern should spur governments to start negotiations without delay.”
Autonomy has been incorporated into weapons systems for years, but the duration of operation, geographical scope, and environment in which autonomous weapons systems operate have been limited. Technological advances are driving the development of weapons systems that operat
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