As delivered by Prof. Roser Martínez Quirante (in Spanish) Mr. President, representatives of nations, members of civil society, During the past 5 years, at the Convention on Conventional Weapons, we have seen a greater understanding of the problems and challenges posed by autonomous weapon systems. The ICRAC is satisfied with the general consensus on…
As delivered by Prof. Noel Sharkey Mr Chairman, Over the last 5 years at the CCW we have seen an increased understanding of the issues and challenges posed by autonomous weapons systems. ICRAC is pleased with the general consensus that we must retain human control over weapons systems, in particular, over the critical functions of…
As delivered by Dr. Elke Schwarz Thank you, Mr Chairperson, The International Committee for Robot Arms Control is pleased to see states move away from the use of broad, brush-stroke terms such as in-the-loop, on-the-loop, the wider loop, human oversight, and appropriate human judgement. We agree with the working paper from Estonia and Finland that…
ICRAC Statement to the 2017 UN CCW GGE Meeting Delivered by Noel Sharkey, Chair, on 15 November 2017 I speak on behalf of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, a founding member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. We would like to thank Ambassador Gill for his preparations of this important meeting. And…
Memorandum for delegates at the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) Meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) Geneva, 13-17 November 2017 ICRAC is an international not-for-profit association of scientists, technologists, lawyers and policy experts committed to the peaceful use of robotics and the regulation of robot weapons. Please visit our…
Building on arguments previously developed for a blog post, ICRAC’s Juergen Altmann and Frank Sauer discuss the strategic implications of autonomy in weapon systems in more depth in a recently published article in Survival. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction: In July 2015, an open letter from artificial-intelligence experts and roboticists called for a ban on autonomous weapon…
This is a guest post by Anna Khalfaoui. Anna is currently pursuing a LLM at Harvard Law School, having previously studied at Cambridge University and King’s College London. She specialises in public international law and international human rights law. Click here to read this post in braille Reflections on the Review Conference as a newcomer…
After three informal meetings of experts, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, during its Fifth Review Conference taking place from 12 to 16 December 2016 in Geneva, will decide on how to continue work on arms control for autonomous weapon systems. Below is a preview to an article published in the October 2016 issue of Arms Control…
Back in 2015, one week before the second informal meeting of experts at the CCW in Geneva, ICRAC released a leaflet with a succinct list of the ten most pressing issues for global security raised by autonomous weapon systems: LAWS – 10 Problems for Global Security. The original announcement is below, and with the CCW’s 5th Review Conference right…
On April 15, ICRAC’s Juergen Altmann delivered the following statement to the informal “Meeting of Experts“, gathered to discuss questions related to “lethal autonomous weapons systems” from April 11 to April 15 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Thank you for allowing the International Committee for Robot Arms Control to provide a second statement…