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Today (October 28), Campaign to Stop Killer Robots coordinator Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch delivered a statement to the United National General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in New York, which concludes its annual deliberations next week.

Representatives from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots will be in New York on 20-21 October to talk to government representatives and other United Nations (UN) delegates as well as media and the public about their concerns over fully autonomous weapons or “killer robots” and the need for government action.

Concerns over killer robots and armed drones were at the forefront of a “Night of Peace” or “De Nacht van de Vrede” event convened by Dutch non-governmental organization PAX in Amsterdam on 24 September, which featured talks by international speakers including a drone operator and roboticist.

ClearPath Robotics of Kitchener, Canada issued the following statement on 13 August 2014, pledging its support for the call for a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons. The company says it will continue to work with its military clients, but has "vouched to not manufacture weaponized robots that remove humans from the loop" as it "has chosen to value our ethics over potential future revenue."

On Tuesday, 15 July, Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) convened a “special briefing on killer robots” to discuss issues surrounding the development and use of fully autonomous lethal weapons. Roughly 65 people attended the briefing held…

United Nations disarmament chief Angela Kane stated this week (2 July) that “there is a widespread view” that weapons systems that have the capability of selecting and attacking targets without human intervention “must be subject to meaningful human control.”…

More than 20 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have endorsed a joint statement calling for a ban on weapons that would be able to select and attack targets without meaningful human control. The Laureates warn that lethal robots would "completely and forever change the face of war and likely spawn a new arms race" and ask, "Can humanity afford to follow such a path?" They express concern that "leaving the killing to machines might make going to war easier and shift the burden of armed conflict onto civilians." The Laureates urge public debate about the ethics and morality of autonomous weapons systems. They welcome the establishment of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and "whole-heartedly embrace its goal of a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons that would be able to select and attack targets on their own."

Concerns are increasing over the potential impact of fully autonomous weapons under human rights law, which applies during peacetime as well as armed conflict. Nations are expected to consider the matter at the next session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, which opens on 10 June. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is convening a briefing on "human rights, disarmament, and killer robots" at the UN on June 11 - see the Flyer.

At the first multilateral meeting ever held on killer robots, nations have recognized the need to confront the challenge of fully autonomous weapons that could select and attack targets without any human control. The call issued by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots for a pre-emptive ban on these fully autonomous weapons has become a central feature of the international debate.