GENEVA, Sept 5 (Reuters) – The 128 states party to a framework that regulates or bans weapons considered as indiscriminate, or causing too many injuries, agreed on a document on Saturday that could pave the way to international rules on autonomous weapons.
Agreement to the non-binding text marks a significant step after more than a decade of talks on how to regulate weapons systems that can identify and engage targets with varying degrees of autonomy, sometimes called “killer robots”.
However, one rights group said the text definition of an autonomous weapon and the measures to reduce their possible harmful effects on civilians appeared to have been watered down.
“It’s a real shame that all the work done by states on the text over the past three years has been substantially diluted in the last hours,” Nicole van Rooijen, executive director at Stop Killer Robots, told Reuters.
The member states of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons had been meeting this week in the Swiss city of Geneva and reached consensus overnight.
The agreement comes as alarm grows over the use of lethal autonomous weapons systems in conflicts, including those in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East. The document, reached by consensus, is non-binding but could open the door to formal treaty negotiations.
Talks went late into the night to overcome differences over language amid opposition from states such as the United States and Russia.
The U.S. and Russia favour national guidelines over international legally binding rules. Washington sought flexibility in the non-binding text, including in areas related to exercising human judgment.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
