Ban ‘killer robots’ with international treaty, says Human Rights Watch
- NGO says 30 countries want autonomous weapons prohibited, while many others want to ‘retain human control over use of force’
- Report names US and Russia as ‘most problematic’, but China, Israel, South Korea and certain European nations also on the move
Human Rights Watch said on Monday it was seeking a new international treaty to halt the race towards fully autonomous weapons, claiming a growing number of countries wanted an outright ban.
The non-governmental organisation said 30 countries are now explicitly seeking a ban, after compiling an overview of 97 nations with a stated position on the use and development of what it termed “killer robots”.
Most of the 97 want a treaty “to retain human control over the use of force”, the New York-based group said.
“Weapons systems that select and engage targets without meaningful human control are unacceptable and need to be prevented,” HRW said in its summary of the overview report, released in Geneva.
“All countries have a duty to protect humanity from this dangerous development by banning fully autonomous weapons. Retaining meaningful human control over the use of force is an ethical imperative, a legal necessity and a moral obligation.”