Rights Groups Urge UN Talks on Limits for Autonomous Weapons

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Stop Killer Robots called on states to use the Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) to begin talks on a legally binding protocol limiting weapons guided by artificial intelligence. The UN treaty, adopted in 1980, bars weapons that cause unnecessary suffering to combatants or indiscriminately harm civilians, but sets no specific limits on self-guided systems. The conference meets once every five years.

The groups say autonomous weapons are already being tested, integrated and deployed. The New York Times reported this year that Russia was testing and deploying AI-powered drones in Ukraine that can identify and strike targets without a human making the final decision. In July, one struck a gas station in Zaporizhzhia, killing three civilians. China has developed systems including armed robotic dogs, drone swarms and unmanned combat vehicles, some displayed in military exercises. The Financial Times reported that US startup Foundation Future Industries was in talks to supply the Israel Defense Forces with as many as 1,000 Phantom MK-1 humanoid robots for possible use in Gaza’s tunnel network, including combat.

Concerns also extend to AI-assisted target selection. The source reports that Israel has used such systems to identify Palestinians for potential assassination, generate bombing targets and track people to their homes. It also says the United States used AI software to prioritize airstrike targets during its war on Iran. Pentagon investigators cited flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and excessive reliance on Palantir’s Maven AI system among factors in the February 28 US bombing of an elementary school in Minab, which killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children.

In September, a UN expert group agreed on a proposed definition of lethal autonomous weapons and a regulatory framework calling for human control and compliance with the laws of war. The United States and Russia pushed to weaken some provisions on human review and system reliability; explicit language on ethical considerations was also removed. Human Rights Watch criticized the changes but said the proposal could still underpin treaty talks within a year. Amnesty’s Carolyn Horn called for negotiations before autonomous weapons become entrenched in military practice. Human Rights Watch’s Verity Coyle said a time-bound process was needed, while Stop Killer Robots’ Nicole van Rooijen described the conference as the best opportunity in years to secure a treaty.