Stop Killer Robots wins Golden Dove for Peace Award

The Stop Killer Robots Campaign is honoured to receive the Golden Dove for Peace Award. As it becomes increasingly clear that artificial intelligence and automated decision-making will play a key role in the way we live as individuals, as societies, and as a global community, it is crucial to establish rules for how this applies to the use of force. Our campaign has worked for over a decade to ensure that there is meaningful human control in the use of force, calling for the creation of new international law to regulate autonomy in weapons systems. We believe that setting legal standards through the creation of a treaty is critical to ensuring peace and global stability. Over the last twelve months, we have seen increasing reports on the use of military AI and weapons with autonomous capabilities in ongoing international conflicts. This has profound humanitarian implications. Accepting AI-enabled dehumanisation, targeting, and killing of people in military contexts is untenable, and will have significant consequences in policing, border control and wider society. It is imperative that regulation catch up to the pace of technological development. It is time for the global community to ensure that life or death decisions cannot be delegated to machines.

We have seen clear and building momentum toward achieving our goal of new international law on autonomous weapons systems. In 2023, our coalition of over 250 civil society organisations in 70 countries successfully lobbied states to adopt the first ever UN resolution on autonomous weapons. This resolution was adopted by the overwhelming majority of states, and demonstrates that there is political will to address the risks posed by autonomous weapons. Further, in the last two years, we have seen cross-regional support manifest through a number of declarations adopted on autonomous weapons which underscore their legal, ethical, humanitarian impacts and the need for new international law. The 79th UN General Assembly is currently underway, offering states the chance to act with urgency and show continued political leadership on this issue. In accepting this year’s Golden Dove for Peace Award, we hope that the highlighting of our work on autonomous weapons further signals the importance of the need to act now to build peace and safeguard humanity for current and future generations.

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Notes to editors:

• The Golden Doves for Peace are awarded by Archivio Disarmo every year to four journalists who are particularly dedicated to themes of peace and disarmament. A fifth dove is awarded to an international figure or organisation that has made a significant contribution to the cause of peace. The prize will be awarded on 12 October in the Hall of the Protomoteca in Rome, Italy. Dr. Peter Asaro, the campaign’s Vice-Chair will accept the award on behalf of the campaign. 
• Stop Killer Robots is a global coalition of more than 250 international, regional, and national NGOs and academic partners working across 70 countries to ensure meaningful human control over the use of force through the development of new international law.