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Embargoed until 00:01 EST 21 October 2013 New York PRESS RELEASE: UN: Start International Talks on Killer Robots – Increasing calls for international action on fully autonomous weapons All nations should agree to begin international talks aimed…

At an event at the United Nations in New York today (Monday, 21 October), representatives of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots urged all nations to agree to begin international talks aimed at preventing the creation of fully autonomous robot weapons that, once activated, would select and engage targets without human intervention.

The International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), a founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, has issued a statement endorsed by more than 270 engineers, computing and artificial intelligence experts, roboticists, and professionals from related disciplines that calls for a ban on fully autonomous weapons. In the statement, 272 experts from 37 countries say that, “given the limitations and unknown future risks of autonomous robot weapons technology, we call for a prohibition on their development and deployment. Decisions about the application of violent force must not be delegated to machines.”

A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Sweden including Civil Rights Defenders, Svenska Freds (Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, SPAS), and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (…

On 3 September 2013, France in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs held a seminar for interested governments and civil society on fully autonomous weapons systems. The 90-minute event was held in the grand Council…

Following significant outreach by non-governmental organizations, German politicians and officials are beginning to commit to the call to ban fully autonomous weapons, known as vollständig autonome waffen or kampfroboter.  A poll of political parties participating in the 2013 federal election shows that Germany's next government will likely engage actively on this issue in the years ahead, including at the international level.

Interest in tackling fully autonomous weapons is growing in Norway with events in Oslo on 4 September, where campaigners outlined civil society concerns and called on the government and opposition parties to articulate their policy on banning the weapons.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has issued a new edition of its quarterly journal International Review of the Red Cross, focused on new technologies and warfare and featuring articles by several members of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots: Dr. Peter Asaro of ICRAC on banning autonomous weapons systems, Prof. Noel Sharkey of ICRAC on autonomous robot warfare, and Richard Moyes and Thomas Nash of Article 36 on the role of civil society in the development of standards on new weapons. The accompanying editorial is entitled, "Science cannot be placed above its consequences."

Representatives from both sides of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom agree that fully autonomous weapons raise numerous concerns warranting further deliberation, including at the international level. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Alistair Burt, however emphasized that the government does not support the call for a moratorium on these future weapons that would select and attack targets without further human intervention, described as "lethal autonomous robotics" in the parliamentary adjournment debate held late in the evening of 17 June 2013.