Stop Killer Robots submission on autonomous weapon systems to the UN Secretary-General

The Stop Killer Robots campaign welcomed the opportunity to submit our views to the United Nations Secretary-General in response to Resolution 78/241, which

requests the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States and observer States on lethal autonomous weapons systems, inter alia, on ways to address the related challenges and concerns they raise from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives and on the role of humans in the use of force, and to submit a substantive report reflecting the full range of views received with an annex containing these views, to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session for further discussion by Member States;

and

also requests the Secretary-General to invite the views of international and regional organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, civil society, the scientific community and industry to include these views in the original language received in the annex of the aforementioned report.

After ten years of international discussions, a legally binding instrument is the only effective way to start to address the humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical challenges and concerns that autonomous weapons systems raise. Relying on existing law alone will not be sufficient. The contributions of states and non-governmental experts to discussions have decisively demonstrated this. Specific rules and legal clarity are needed to draw clear lines to protect humanity.