Governments around the world are increasingly recognising the potential dangers posed by fully autonomous weapons or “killer robots”, says Mary Wareham, coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.
“There is now widespread recognition that “killer robots” need to be urgently addressed,” said Wareham, who is also arms advocacy director at Human Rights Watch – a co-founder 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.”
Her comments came after the conclusion of the first multilateral meeting on the weapon systems at United Nations in Geneva on 16th May. Eighty-seven countries and a number of non-government organisations including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots took part in the informal four day meeting aimed at discussing “the questions related to emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems”.
Representatives of the 117 countries which are party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons will decide on whether to continue the process examining fully autonomous weapons systems at their annual meeting in November.
According to Human Rights Watch, while fully autonomous weapons have not yet been developed, technology is moving toward increasing autonomy. HRW says such weapons “would select and engage targets without further intervention by a human”.
