Stop Killer Robots has released three new regional briefing papers on Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Arab initiatives on the governance of autonomous weapons systems.
Stop Killer Robots has released three new regional briefing papers on Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Arab initiatives on the governance of autonomous weapons systems.
Aimed at government representatives, campaigners, and researchers, the papers look at why autonomous weapons systems are a particular concern to each of these regions or groupings of states, highlighting the specific issues and challenges that the development and use of these systems raise for countries and people in different areas of the world.
The papers also give recommendations for how states from these regions can build on their work and positions so far, to further strengthen their stances and contributions to international discussions on autonomous weapons systems, towards a legally binding instrument.
African, Arab, and Latin American and Caribbean countries, regional institutions, and experts have already made significant contributions and taken key initiatives that have shown global leadership on this issue. Most of the countries across these regions and groupings have called for new international law, and have collectively emphasised the need for meaningful human control and agency.
Stop Killer Robots’ new briefing papers bring together in one place a record of initiatives from these regions to lead and push forward international discussions on autonomous weapons systems towards a legally binding instrument, as well as detailing collective stances and areas of convergence in the positions taken by each region or grouping in recent years at international discussions.
With weapons systems and tools with increasing levels of autonomy being tested and used in Africa, and concern regarding access by non-state actors, autonomous weapons systems are a concerning issue for security and civilian protection on the continent. For Arab states, high levels of conflict and the ongoing testing and use of AI and autonomy in the use of force in the Middle East and North Africa region create grave risks for civilians, and security concerns for states. In Latin America and the Caribbean, security threats posed by the potential acquisition and use of systems by armed non-state actors, and risks to people such as through algorithmic bias in the use of force, make the development of international legally binding rules imperative, to start to address the issue of autonomy and AI in weapons systems.
International discussions on autonomous weapons systems are now at an advanced stage: increasing numbers of states are recognising that they now have a basis to move to negotiations on an international instrument, from work currently underway at the Convention on Conventional Weapons to draft a set of elements for such an agreement. With the mandate for these discussions set to end this year, states face a key decision point on their next step: this must be to negotiate a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.
In this context, it is critical that countries that wish to move forward to negotiations take every opportunity to build commitment to do this in 2026 – and to make sure their views on how autonomous weapons systems should be prohibited and restricted under new international legal rules are well represented.
These new regional resources are intended to assist with this task.
The papers are available in the following translations:
UN Secretary General and ICRC President Renew Urgent Call on Killer Robots Today, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a renewed and urgent joint call…
