Over the past decade, the expanded use of unmanned armed vehicles has dramatically changed warfare, bringing new humanitarian and legal challenges. Now rapid advances in technology are resulting in efforts to develop fully autonomous weapons. These robotic weapons would be able to choose and fire upon targets on their own, without any meaningful human control. This capability would pose a fundamental challenge to the protection of civilians and to compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law.
A pre-emptive prohibition on the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons—weapons systems that would select and engage targets on the basis of sensor inputs, not by humans—is urgently needed. This could be achieved through an international treaty banning such weapons, as well as through national laws and other measures.
Civil society has come together to establish the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an global coalition of non-governmental organisations and academic partners that is working to secure a ban on fully autonomous
weapons, in order to retain meaningful human control over the use of force. All interested NGOs are encouraged to endorse this call for a ban on killer robots and join the global coalition.
Any non-governmental organisation is eligible to join the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. There is no joining fee or annual
membership fee, although contributions of funding, time, and expertise are welcome. Applicants are requested to:
For more information, please see the governance section of the Campaign’s website. Please do not hesitate to contact the Campaign Coordinator Mary Wareham at Human Rights Watch, wareham@hrw.org; the Campaign Outreach Manager Isabelle Jones at isabelle@stopkillerrobots.org; or any member of the campaign’s