Fully autonomous weapons are one of the most alarming military technologies under development today. As such there is an urgent need for states, experts, and the general public to examine these weapons closely under the Martens Clause, the unique provision of international humanitarian law that establishes a baseline of protection for civilians and combatants when no specific treaty law on a topic exists. This report shows how fully autonomous weapons, which would be able to select and engage targets without meaningful human control, would contravene both prongs of the Martens Clause: the principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience. To comply with the Martens Clause, states should adopt a preemptive ban on the weapons’ development, production, and use.

The rapid development of autonomous technology and artificial intelligence (AI) means that fully autonomous weapons could become a reality in the foreseeable future. Also known as “killer robots” and lethal autonomous weapons systems, they raise a host of moral, legal, accountability, operational, technical, and security concerns. These weapons have been the subject of international debate since 2013. In that year, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a civil society coalition, was launched and began pushing states to discuss the weapons. After holding three informal meetings of experts, states parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) began formal talks on the topic in 2017. In August 2018, approximately 80 states will convene again for the next meeting of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts.

Report by the Human Rights Watch